Frederick County’s Carrollton Manor stretches from below Frederick City southward to the Potomac River. The western boundary is Catoctin Mountain, and the eastern is Sugarloaf Mountain. This constitutes a bit of an embellishment based on the original 1723 “Carrollton” land patent of 10,000 acres as assigned to namesake Charles Carroll the Settler. He claimed he acquired it from the Tuscarora tribe that had come from North Carolina about the year 1712.
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When it comes to researching and exploring the history of this special region of Frederick County, I look to two prime “Go To” sources: William Jarboe Grove (1854-1937) and Nancy Willman Bodmer. William Jarboe Grove’s History of Carrollton Manor was first published in 1922 and takes a personal  view of former families and “Southern culture” of the area by a lifelong resident. Grove’s father was Manassas J. Grove, founder of the M.J. Grove Lime Company located at Lime Kiln just above Buckeystown.

Nancy Willman Bodmer was born in Aberdeen (MD) and moved to Frederick County in 1972 with her husband Ed. The couple settled in Buckeystown where they raised their family and opened up a pottery and wood stove shop in the center of this village southeast of the county seat. Nancy soon became enamored with the history of her new hometown and set out to research and write numerous publications about Buckeystown and surrounding area. Two of these are Buckey’s Town: A Village Remembered (first published in 1979), and The Past Revisited: Buckeystown and Other Historical Sites (1990). Nancy continues to research, preserve and present the history of the southern Frederick Valley, in addition to exercising her pottery craftmanship. I want to thank Nancy in advance as I will be sharing some important visuals from her books to help illustrate this week's "Story in Stone."
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Two prominent early characters of “the Manor” were Judge Benjamin Amos Cunningham (1798-1891) and his son John A. H. Cunningham (1831-1870). Their names can be found on the pages of both authors’ respective works. Judge Cunningham led quite a life, one that spanned nearly the entirety of the 19th century. He began his career as a merchant, but finished a highly-respected politician and banker. His son died at 38 years of age, but made a name for himself as a local leader in agrarian circles operating one of the largest plantations in the county.

​Benjamin Amos Cunningham’s large funerary monument sits proudly on the northern end of Mount Olivet Cemetery’s Area E. Son John’s gravestone is a few yards to the south in the neighboring lot. Just down the hill, behind their graves, one can view cars traveling on the more recently renamed “Stadium Drive” – the beginning leg of New Design Road, a thoroughfare that bisects the entirety of Carrollton Manor from north to south. The route terminates at Noland's Ferry on the Potomac River and was originally called the "New Designed Road." It dates from the mid-1800s.

William Jarboe Grove, in his History of Carrollton Manor writes:

“The road probably derives its name from the fact that for nine miles (on its southern portion) it was run in a straight line. No barriers of any kind checked its straight course, although then, as now, objections arose. One of the most serious was that in passing through the western edge of the Darnall property, the road cutoff the buildings and Monagoul Spring, which was not only one of the finest springs on the Manor, but its connection with the Tuscarora Indians made it valuable from a historical standpoint. About this time Davis Richardson bought the Darnell farms and the Manor settled the dispute to the satisfaction of Mr. Richardson, who built a fine residence on the east side of the road, where C. Arunah Rogers now lives. The Buckeystown pike runs through the Manor on the east and was originally an Indian trail coming from the lakes down the Susquehanna River through Pennsylvania and Maryland to the mouth of the Monocacy and on down through the Virginias to Florida.”

The New Designed Road was originally built by the Carroll family to help facilitate the movement of goods from Noland’s Ferry (on the Potomac) to Frederick City, however it would not fully open until the mid-1800s. The road project lost its straight line at the former plantation of a man named Richard Cromwell, who served as the last overseer of Carrollton Manor for the Carroll family.

Meanwhile, the Buckeystown Pike, paralleling New Design Road to the east, would constitute part of the original US Route 15 until being supplanted by a new right of way at the eastern foot of Catoctin Mountain in the 1960s. Today, we also know the Buckeystown Pike by its technical name, Maryland Route 85. Just below the old turnpike’s namesake town, this roadway parallels the Monocacy River on the eastern side of "the manor," and passes by the former Buckingham Plantation once inhabited by the fore-mentioned Judge Benjamin Amos Cunningham and his heirs. Today, this is where you can find the Claggett Center and Buckingham Choice Retirement Community.

​Benjamin A. Cunningham
Benjamin Amos Cunningham was born June 20th, 1798 in Baltimore, Maryland, a son of Harford County natives Daniel Cunningham (1763-1832) of Little Falls and wife Mary Ann Amos of Gunpowder Falls (1777-1872). Benjamin’s parents were Quakers and married on October 16th, 1797 at the Little Falls Meeting House near today’s Fallston. 

Benjamin A. Cunningham was raised in Baltimore. An interesting anecdote can be found in his lengthy obituary and refers to the War of 1812. As a young teen, Benjamin assisted in digging entrenchments at Baltimore’s Chinquapin or Hansom Hill to aid the local militia units preparing to battle the invading British.

​This is a great connection to Mount Olivet’s totality of War of 1812 veterans, including our front-gate greeter, Francis Scott Key. Like Key, Benjamin A. Cunningham studied law with intent to have a legal career. 

​Benjamin somehow became acquainted with some of Frederick’s earliest Quakers living on Carrollton Manor in the immediate vicinity of Buckeystown. These included the Davis and Richardson families.  Maybe this is what brought him in 1825 to the sleepy little village south of bustling Frederick. Regardless, the road, literally and figuratively, led him to Buckeystown where he would engage in mercantile pursuits.  We are not exactly sure where Cunningham conducted his early business but he took over the job of village post master from Daniel Buckey in 1826. He would serve in this role until 1840. 

​Benjamin Amos Cunningham would go on to marry one of the twin daughters of a wealthy, large plantation owner in the immediate area of Buckeystown. His name was John Hasselbach and he lived south of the village in between the Pike and the Monocacy below Michael’s Mill. Hasselbach is spelled a number of ways, but I will use the spelling found for Rebecca on her gravestone of "Hosselboch." Benjamin’s bride Rebecca (born 1804) was of German heritage and had also formerly lived in Baltimore before coming to Frederick County with her father and family. Information on this gentleman is tough to come by. I found a probable birth date of 1765 and another of 1757. Either way, both were associated with Philadelphia and he (and possibly his wife who remains unnamed) were Redemptioners who came in the 1780s. This could explain a relationship to nearby Quakers as well.

John Hosselboch purchased his 300-acre farm with its stately mansion in 1811. The earliest recorded history of this property dates to 1730 when the land was patented as Buckingham House and granted to Edward Spriggs, a Colonel in the British Army and well-known pre-Revolutionary War land speculator. Later names on the deed include Ninian Tannehill, Ninian’s son William Tannehill, and finally George Schnertzell before Hosselboch’s ownership. The farmhouse is thought to have been constructed in 1780. Buckingham farm has always been considered one of the show places of “the Manor” on account of its fertile Monocacy bottom land and splendid, scenic views of surrounding mountains. It was also a place that utilized considerable slave labor. At John Hosselboch’s death in 1840, the plantation was supported by 34 black and mulatto house servants and farm laborers.

​Benjamin Amos Cunningham married Rebecca Hosselboch on November 9th, 1829 and the couple went on to have three children together: the fore-mentioned John Amos Hosselboch Cunningham (1831-1870), Mary Rebecca (Cunningham) Hall (1833-1913) and William Armstrong Cunningham (1834-1892). The Cunningham family lived at the Buckingham farm residence with Rebecca’s parents. I’d also like to add that the Hosselboch family were influential in building the first stone Methodist Church in Buckeystown in 1827, of which Benjamin Cunningham would soon become a devout member.

​When John Hosselboch died in 1840, he left the Buckingham House and plantation to his 19-year-old grandson, John Amos Cunningham. At this time, Benjamin sold his business in town, likely in an effort to help his son with the responsibility of running the Hosselbach family farm. I want to return to author William Jarboe Grove for a bit more narration regarding the Hosselboch and Cunningham families from The History of Carrollton Manor. The author states that John Amos Hosselboch Cunningham was a key supporter of the road projects on the manor, and served as one of the original officers of the Buckeystown Turnpike Road Company. The younger Cunningham also had his name changed to honor his maternal grandfather:

“Very active in this road movement was John Amos Hoselbock Cunningham, who married Martha, daughter of James L. Davis. Mr.  Cunningham was a man of leisure with a happy jovial disposition, and a true gentleman of the Southern type, he owned Buckingham, where the Buckingham Industrial School is now located and maintained by the Baker brothers.
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Mr. Cunningham, by a special act of the Legislature, had his name changed to John Amos Hoselboch Cunningham. When the change of Mr. Cunningham's name was under consideration, an amusing incident occurred. One of the members of the Legislature inquired if it was Mr.  Cunningham's wish to take up the whole alphabet. But it was in gratitude for the gift to him by  his grandfather John Amos Hoselboch of the Buckingham farm containing more than three    hundred acres of land, and all the stock, farming implements and household furniture, that Mr. Cunningham had his name changed. Mr. Hoselboch was a very successful farmer, who died and left all this by will to Mr. Cunningham. Mr. Hoselboch had three children: one son and two daughters. He provided well for his daughters, but his son George, who had been very successful, and whom he had already helped financially, was not remembered by his father's will. The daughters were twins. One married Thomas Davis, the owner of Greenfield Mills, and the other married Judge Benjamin Amos Cunningham. A remarkable occurrence was their   death on the same day, and the messengers bearing the news of their deaths met on the road between Buckeystown and Greenfield Mills. They were both buried on the same day in the family burying ground on Buckingham farm."     

Rebecca (Hosselboch) Cunningham died the day after Christmas, 1834 at the tender age of 30. As stated above, her twin sister, Hilleary (Hosselboch) Davis of Greenfield Mills down the pike, died the very same day on December 26th (1834). Both young women would be laid to rest in a small, but special cemetery in which members of the Hosselboch family and two individuals of African-American descent are buried. The Hosselboch headstones are no longer present; but a marker has been placed to remember the two Black individuals who were buried here. This private burial ground is particularly familiar to me as it constitutes the opening scene of my 1997 documentary “Up From the Meadows: A Black History of Frederick County, Maryland.”

This cemetery is on private property, but individuals are welcome to visit it if they first check in at the Claggett Center Welcome Center. (If the welcome center is unstaffed, please call 301-691-8048) where you’ll sign in and get a guest badge. You’ll leave your car here and walk behind the Welcome Center. Follow the signs into the farm fields for 0.5 miles through open fields towards the Hosselboch family cemetery on the top of a small hill. Visit online below: On the Trail of Souls.org

William Jarboe Grove continues with a personal anecdote about the burial ground at Buckingham:
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“Mr. Hoselboch and many others were buried in this old graveyard, which was then enclosed by a post and rail fence. About the year 1870, a substantial brick wall was built by Benjamin Cunningham, a son of John Amos Hoselboch Cunningham. I, as a boy, hauled lime in a cart from my father's lime kiln to put up this wall, and I remember very well how difficult it was for the horse to hold the cart back, as the hill which it was necessary to go down was especially steep. It was the custom then for every farm to have its burial ground, which was usually in the center of the field or some prominent place on the farm. During those days, many of the leading citizens and early frontiersmen were buried in these lots. Nearly all of these old graveyards have been farmed over, very few having been enclosed or protected; and, while this looks like desecrating the graves of these early people, still we have the consolation as my mother always said: "No matter where the body rests, so the soul is safe."

​As I was looking into the personal and professional life of Judge Cunningham, my assistant, Marilyn Veek was studying old land records. In 1834, B. A. Cunningham bought his first property in the area. This included a very familiar structure still located on the southwest corner of the Buckeystown Pike and Manor Church Road. Author/historian Nancy W. Bodmer knows this place intimately because it served as the home of her pottery business for half a century!

In her book, Nancy opines about this structure which she gave the designation of #83 and "The General Store":

"Originally part of the Good Luck tract and later owned by George Buckey, this property was sold to Adam Kramer for $300 in 1823. The land included the present 4 houses to the south. The price would indicate that no houses were present in 1823. The stone for construction was quarried from a rare vein of iron rich stone along the Monocacy River near Michael's Mill. The stone house adjacent to this store was built around the same period. In 1825, Abraham Koontz bought the property which had doubled in price, $600.50. In 1834, Benjamin Amos Cunningham purchased the property for $1400. In a history of the town written by W. G. Baker in 1913, he describes the stone store: 'Seventy years ago Mr.'s Cunningham and Duvall kept the largest or one of the largest stores in Frederick County outside of Frederick City in the building of Arthur McKenna. From the store room, sales were made for miles around. Persons now have no idea of how many goods were sold from this same old store room. Farmers would buy for their families and for their colored people by the wagon loade.' "

Also around this time, my assistant Marilyn learned that Benjamin had bought 16 lots in town from William Norris, the executor for his brother-in-law George Hosselboch. He was involved with a number of other properties, mostly owned jointly with others including Mr. Duvall, Daniel Baker, Arthur DeLashmutt, and Davis Richardson. He would sell off various lots on the southeast part of the village and along the pike between then and 1871. Many fine homes today are located east and south of Buckingham Lane on these former lots once owned by our subject.

​Cunningham's longtime business partner, Grafton Duvall, purchased the General Store property from Benjamin in 1857 for $2000 and would continue as a merchant here. Fours years earlier, Benjamin had bought an old limestone building a few doors up the pike. This was the former Buckey's Tavern, and was sold to Cunningham by Col. Lewis Kemp, son-in-law of George Buckey. Col. Kemp was the first president of the Agricultural Club of Frederick County and the Frederick County Agricultural Society, founded in 1853. Benjamin A. Cunningham would also become a board member of this organization. This same year of 1853 would mark the first exhibition of the Frederick County Agricultural Society. Today we know this event as the Great Frederick Fair.

Mr. Cunningham re-opened a second mercantile establishment in the former Buckey’s Tavern, and it is shown as "Cunningham and Co." on the 1858 Bond Atlas Map. This occurred in 1853.  It has been said that Mr. C. could provide his customers with anything from “needle to anchor.” 

​In early April of 1854, Benjamin's wife Eveline Cunningham died at age 36. It appears that she was originally buried at the Hosselboch burying ground as Mount Olivet was not open for burials until late May of that year. It was also this same year that Cunningham was elected to the state legislature as a delegate. In 1858, Gov. Thomas H. Hicks would appoint Benjamin to serve as Judge of Frederick County's Orphans Court.

​Based on land records, newly-titled Judge Cunningham bought a farm in 1859. That farm is at the location marked S.D. Leib on the 1873 Titus Atlas Map. This is north of Lime Kiln (over the train tracks) and south of Arcadia on the west side of the Buckeystown Pike. Today, Cunningham's former farm is bisected by English Muffin Way and is home to several large warehouse buildings and the local home of Matan Companies.

​Benjamin Amos Cunningham would weather the American Civil War with no issue. He was said to have been a proud Unionist and was elected to serve on the 1864 Union Convention of Maryland. This body rewrote of the state constitution officially put an end to slavery here in the Old Line State.

In January, 1865, Cunningham was elected Secretary of the Frederick Town Savings Institution and appears in their employ in the 1870 US Census. Some records say that Cunningham moved to Frederick in 1865, but if so, he was likely renting.

​​All the while, John Amos Hosselboch Cunningham was making his maternal grandfather proud with his successful management of the Buckingham Plantation. I've read that after freeing his slaves, he would assist many in obtaining land nearby the plantation. Just across from Buckingham, on the other side of the Monocacy River, two Emancipation communities would grow in the form of Flint Hill and Hope Hill. Many of these families of color had former links to the large plantation. Some continued to work here, while others found employment at Buckeystown's cannery, along with the tanyards and nearby lime operations.

​John Amos Hosselboch Cunningham predeceased his father. This occurred on April 20th, 1870. He would be buried the very next day, however this would not be in the small family cemetery at Buckingham. Interestingly, his mortal remains would be laid to rest in Mount Olivet in Area E/Lot 197.

​Earlier that same month, Judge Cunningham had second wife Eveline re-interred in Mount Olivet in an adjoining plot to his sons' Area E/Lot 90. He had already done the same with his first wife, Rebecca (Hosselboch) Cunningham, over a year earlier on January 30th, 1869. This is likely the time when the large obelisk style monument was erected on the plot, however it could have come two years later upon the passing of Judge Cunningham’s mother Ann in 1872.

Our subject retired from his position at the bank in 1875. He can be found living with two daughters, a niece and a house servant in the 1880 census and spent the following decade in Frederick. He bought what is now 227 East 2nd Street in 1880 from trustees for John Jarboe. At the time he owned it, the property included a vacant lot to the east at what is now 229 East 2nd Street. The house now at that location was probably built by his daughter Mary (Cunningham) Hall.

​Judge Benjamin Amos Cunningham died on May 1st 1891 and was noted as one of Frederick’s oldest residents. As mentioned at the onset, his obituary was quite extensive and made front page news here in Frederick. I also found his obituary in the Baltimore, Washington and even Pittsburgh newspapers.

​Judge Cunningham's other son, William Armstrong Cunningham (1834-1892), died within a year of his father. Thus concludes the lives of the male Cunninghams of Carrollton Manor. Also buried on this plot in Mount Olivet are two of the Judge’s daughters: Cecelia Chilton (1844-1902) with husband William, and Ida Caroline Cunningham (1852-1902). John Amos Hosselboch Cunningham’s wife Mattie and three young grandchildren are also here. Another daughter, Alice Louise (Cunningham) Rice (1842-1942), is in nearby Area B/Lot 112 .

​John Amos Hosselboch Cunningham’s heirs sold the Buckingham plantation to a gentleman named Daniel Baker sometime before 1873 as his name is designated on this site on the Titus Map published in 1873. Twenty-five years later in 1898, Daniel, Joseph, and William Baker founded the Buckingham Industrial School for Boys on the property. Based on the European industrial school model, the Baker family endowed and created an institution where poor white boys might have a home and receive a good education. The enrollment averaged 50 Buckingham Boys between the ages of 6 and 18.

​In addition to their industrial education the boys took care of gardening, milking, canning, and tending the orchards. The school closed in 1943-44. In 1950 the property was donated to the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and renamed Bishop Claggett Center after Thomas John Claggett, first bishop of Maryland. It continues to serve as a conference and retreat center to this day.
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The name Buckingham also lives on with the Buckingham’s Choice continuing care retirement community located next to Claggett Center. A “newly designed path” leads residents on a pleasurable walk through the scenic grounds of the former "Lords of Carrollton Manor" up to the old Hosselboch/Hasselbach Burying Ground.  

In the 1970s, Nabisco did a satirical "take-off" of a song for a catchy advertising campaign, with the lyrics "A Triscuit, A Triscuit, baked only by Nabisco.” The original tune here is called "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," a nursery rhyme first recorded in the late 19th century. The melody to which the nursery rhyme is sung recurs in other nursery rhymes including "It's Raining, It's Pouring," "Rain Rain Go Away" and "Ring around the Rosie".
"A-tisket a-tasket
A green and yellow basket
I wrote a letter to my friend
And on the way I dropped it,
I dropped it, I dropped it,
And on the way I dropped it.
A little boy he picked it up
And put it in his pocket."

The rhyme was further used as the basis for a successful 1938 recording by Ella Fitzgerald, the famous black vocalist who once performed in Frederick at Bernie Winkle's "Hollywood Gardens." This venue was located on West Patrick Street where the Comcast technical headquarters is located.

This little jingle fluttered about in a deep windmill of my mind when recently walking by a gravestone boasting the last name of a decedent couple named Truscott. Here, I found the final resting places of George Truscott (1816-1885) and wife Hannah R. Truscott (1818-1889). The grave monuments in Area D are bold and pearly white, after having been dutifully cleaned a few years back by our Friends of Mount Olivet "Stoners." 

Regular readers of this blog  know that I am now about to do a deep dive on this Truscott family--
Who were they? When did they arrive in Frederick? What did they do for a living? Where did they live? How did they die? What are lasting legacies, if any, in addition to having these gravestones in Mount Olivet?

I will begin with commenting on whether this gravesite truly has anything more to do with Triscuits? And before I go any further, perhaps I should explain what Triscuits are for those who have never partaken in the lovable treats that are "Real. Satisfying. Crackers." that are "Unapologetically Wholesome." At least that's what recent marketing says about them.

Triscuit is a brand name of snack crackers which take the form of baked square whole wheat wafers. Invented in 1900, a patent was granted in 1902 and the Shredded Wheat Company began production the next year in Niagara Falls, New York. The Niagara site was chosen due to its proximity to the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power generating plant which opened in 1895. This was the first major electric-generating site in the United States. The name Triscuit may have come from a combination of the words electricity and biscuit as one early advertisement boasted that the snack crackers were "Baked by electricity," claiming they were "the only food on the market prepared by this 1903 process."

If anything else, hopefully you have learned something here that will allow you to impress friends, family and foe at the next dinner party you attend in which Triscuits are proudly served. I mean you can also bring up the information I will share about the Truscotts as well, but I don't think it will have the same effect in a social setting.

George Truscott was born on September 15th, 1816 in Cornwall, England in a civil parish and small village named St. Stephen-in-Brannel. As a matter of fact, I found a baptismal record for our decedent with the date of October 5th, 1816. This event occurred in the fine church of St. Stephens, by which the village (and parish) takes its name. The Anglican Church here has roots dating back to the year 1261.

One of the most famous past residents of St. Stephen-in-Brannel was named William Truscott (1734-1798). One of 12 children of John and Margaret Truscott, who are buried in the St. Stephen's churchyard,, William would serve as a rear admiral in the Royal Navy in the late 1700s. Many of his sons would follow in his footsteps of naval service. The youngest, named George Truscott, came up with a simple invention that  revolutionized the way water was stored and retrieved on Royal Navy vessels. This is called "the force pump."

According to William R. O'Byrne's Naval Biographical Dictionary published in 1849, Capt. George Truscott was "Inspired by a visit to an ale house, he designed and fitted a ship in 1805 with a relatively simple iron pump attached to a small diameter pipe system that led to the hold. Just like in the ale houses, he attached a flexible leather hose to the end of the pipe and fed it into the water casks. This obviated the need to move the casks to retrieve water. This was a major boon on sailing vessels, because moving casks to retrieve water was time consuming, dangerous, and inevitably impacted the ship’s trim, requiring periodic rearrangement of the ship’s casks and ballast. Truscott's pump eventually led to the use of permanent iron water tanks on sailing vessels, which ultimately resulted in the abandonment of shingle and iron ballast."

Capt. George Truscott was a contemporary of our George Truscott's father and a definite cousin of our subject. I had a bit of a time connecting the exact genealogy because of repetitive first names, but "a Truscott by another name would not be a Truscott." Unfortunately, information on the seafarin' Truscotts is certainly easier to come by than that pertaining to our Frederick members of this Cornish family. With a little luck, I found a handful of journal entries in Jacob Engelbrecht's diary that shed a little light on the life of Frederick's George Truscott. This one was penned on September 16th, 1837:

"Mr. George Truscott, second son of Alexander Truscott, told me today that yesterday he was 21 years old. Consequently was born September 15, 1816. He was born in England but was only 18 months old when his parents came to America. He says he intends to get naturalized to-day."

This was a tremendous find as it told me the exact time our subject came to America. If my math is correct, George Truscott and family arrived here in March, 1818. This was the same year that Frederick Town was incorporated as a city. 

Our cemetery records reveal that George's parents were Alexander "Alex" Truscott and Catherine "Cate" Truscott. Alexander's supposed birth year is thought to be 1787/88 and it can be assumed that he was a lifelong resident of St. Stephen-in-Brannel. I found several Alexander Truscotts in the burial ground there, including the earliest Truscott mentioned a few moments ago. I would soon learn that we had our own here in Mount Olivet. 

George's mother was Catherine Thomas according to a marriage record of St. Stephens that gives a matrimony date for the couple of February 18th, 1808. She too was a native of St. Stephen-in-BranneI. I immediately began searching old US Census Records and found the Truscott family living here in town. From what I can deduce, they lived on the south side of East Church Street near today's Winchester Hall. 

​​ The Truscott household consisted of six members. Two boys under 10 years old, one girl under 10, and another female between 11-20.

In consulting old newspapers, I confirmed Alexander's profession. Interestingly, it had a remote connection to Triscuit crackers.  No, he wasn't a baker or electrician, but his employment centered on water, and, more so, the power of water. Alexander Truscott was a pump-maker. I located the following old advertisement for his services in an 1826 edition of Frederick's Political Intelligencer and Republican Gazette. This also further confirmed that the family lived across from Evangelical Lutheran Church, the site of Winchester Hall's parking lot of today.

Mr. Truscott likely learned the art of pump-making in his hometown in England, as it was known as a mining center producing tin, copper, lead and zinc. There are also rich kaolin clay deposits in St. Stephen-in-Brannel which supported a robust industry for making porcelain chinaware and other ceramics. Water needed to be "pumped" out of mines, of course.

Jacob Engelbrecht also mentions that Alexander Truscott, along with another man named Solomon Albach (likely Albaugh), made, and installed a gate between the houses of John Mantz and Col. George M. Eichelberger in mid July, 1827. The only deed we found for Alexander Truscott was one in which he bought household furniture from a lady named Catharine Loveder. This was also in 1827.

The only other tidbit I could learn about Alexander Truscott was that he was a member of the Independent Hose Company. I'm assuming he was quite an asset based on his "9-5 profession" specializing in pumping water. The following article in an 1831 newspaper lists the transplanted Englishman as being appointed a "ladder man."

​Back to Jacob Engelbrecht's Diary I went, and found nothing more than the mentions of the deaths of both Alexander and wife Catherine.

"Died last night in the year of his age Mr. Alexander Truscot (pump maker), a native of Cornwall, England and a resident of this town about twenty years. Buried on the All Saints Churchyard." 
​-Saturday, April 11, 1840

"Died yesterday in the year of her age Mrs. Catherine Truscott, widow of the late Alexander Truscott. She survived her husband only 5 days. Buried on the Protestant Episcopal Graveyard. She was a native of England."
-Thursday, April 16, 1840

An obituary appeared in a Baltimore paper the following week, listing the deaths of both husband and wife. 

We are very fortunate to have a gravestone for this couple whose deaths predate Mount Olivet, which opened in 1854. The bodies were moved here and placed in Area MM in lots bought by All Saints Episcopal Church for a mass reinterment project in 1913. The couple was placed in Lot 42. Their monument is quite unique as it is basically a wide stone serving as a "double-stone" to list the information of each of George Truscott's parents. Perhaps the death of the couple was a rare blessing, as only one stone had to be created by a local stone-carver.

We've mentioned that George Truscott, son of Alexander and Catherine, was born in St. Stephen-in-Brannel, Cornwall, England in 1816. Who were his siblings that appear on the 1820 and 1830 census records? I searched the St. Stephen-in-Brannel parish records further and found four baptisms linked to Alexander and Catherine. These include: Grace Truscott on April 5th, 1810; Samuel Truscott on April 4th, 1812; Rebecca Truscott on January 16th, 1814; and as reported earlier, George on October 5th, 1816. 

I could not find Grace, Samuel or Rebecca in any further records past the 1820 and 1830 census records. I assume they either married or died by the 1840 census. In 1840, I found George listed as a head of household. He had married earlier in the year. A marriage license dated February 19th, 1840 for George and wife Hannah Rebecca Marman (b. July 29th, 1818) was found. Jacob Engelbrecht documented the nuptials in his diary on March 27th saying:

"Married last evening by the Reverend John L. Pitts, Mr. George Truescott(sp), to Miss Hannah Marman, daughter of the late Thomas Marman of this town."

The 1840 US Census shows George and Hannah, but also a mystery female between 10-15 years old. Perhaps this is a sister of Hannah's? Regardless, I want to add that Hannah also had English roots as her father, Thomas (1785-1835) and mother, Ann, were from the Holborn section of London.

I was familiar with the Marman name in context with a later purveyor of oysters in town named Washington P. Marman (1823-1892). He was a younger brother of Hannah. I also stumbled across two other siblings of Hannah. These included Julian E. Marman, married a week before Hannah to John A. Hudson and Sarah Marman. I learned a bit more about the family due to Jacob Engelbrecht recording Sarah's wedding to Solomon Ranck on July 14th, 1830. Less than a month later, Jacob would write:

"Thomas Marman stabbed his son-in-law Solomon Ranck in the neck. Marman is in jail. It happened last Saturday afternoon 7 instant." 

Welcome to the family Solomon! I would also find that Julian's husband (John) served as a sergeant for the Union Army during the American Civil War. In 1863, while here in Frederick, he would be accidentally shot in the head by a fellow soldier named John W. Bechtol. Luckily, our subject George Truscott did not suffer any major head or neck trauma as far as I could see.
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In 1850, we have a clearer picture of the Truscott family. George and Hannah have two daughters, Sarah Catherine (b. January 9th, 1841) and Hannah Rebecca (b. February 8th, 1842). George's profession is also presented to us and is the same as his father, that of pump-maker.

​In 1851, George bought the home he was living in since 1830. This is what is now 122-124 West All Saints Street. I perked up when I learned that he would sell this to a black woman named Mariah Harper in 1859. I researched Mariah back in 2017 for this "Stories in Stone" blog as she was a former slave that belonged to Frederick's prominent Johnson family. In fact, she is buried in the same family vault as our first elected governor of Maryland, Thomas Johnson, Jr., on Area MM in Mount Olivet. Johnson's great-granddaughter, Ann Grahame Ross, served as Mrs. Harper's executor and would sell this home in 1884.

​In 1853, George Truscott bought the property at what is now 130-136 West All Saints, and sold it in 1863. In 1859, he bought what is now 58 South Market Street, which his heirs sold in 1892. This is now a parking lot across from the United Fire Company Hall, but for many years sported a brick facade that was the subject of preservation efforts. This is where George was living in the 1860 census up through his death a few decades later.

Although I located several records pertaining to this family hailing from England, I found very little about George outside the census records. He went about his business of pump-making and was active in the local Masonic Lodge. Daughter Sarah Catherine Truscott would marry George Washington Van Fossen (1839-1922) on February 13th, 1861. The couple lived on West All Saints Street and Mr. Van Fossen worked as a coach and carriage builder and painter eventually owning his own firm.

Englebrecht's diary gives us one more interesting insight into the life of George Truscott. On May 21st, 1868, George and another townsman named John Hemby left for England. Engelbrecht says:

"(They) Will go by steamer and stop at Southampton in the English Channel."

I'm sure this was a great opportunity for George to see his former hometown and any relatives still living. 

George Truscott would die of laryngitis on June 6th, 1885. The newspaper only carried a short mention of his death in a Saturday edition. Not much more would be gleaned about his life and career in a small report on his funeral in Mount Olivet a few days later.

A much more informative obituary would show up in the Frederick News a year later, heralding the death of George's brother Samuel who had ventured to Columbia, Pennsylvania after departing Frederick in the mid-1830s.

I also learned of another Truscott brother who went further west and changed the spelling of his name. This was Thomas W. Truskett, and he had a seemingly more interesting life in "the Wild West." The following passage comes from a 1918 book entitled: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans (Vol 4). 

"(Thomas William Truskett) His paternal grandfather was a native of England who on coming to the United States located in the State of Maryland and there passed the remainder of his life...

​Thomas W. Truskett the elder, was born in Maryland in 1823, and was reared and educated in his native state, from whence, as a young man, he went to Monroe County, Ohio. There he became a pioneer farmer, married, and established a home, and continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1859, when he removed to Cooper County, Missouri, again becoming a pioneer.
 
In 1862 he enlisted in the First Regiment, Nebraska Volunteer Infantry, for service during the Civil war, and joined the command of Gen. John Seaton, with which he participated in a number of the most important engagements of the war, including the battles of Shiloh, Helena and Fort Donelson, and the siege of Vicksburg. He was taken prisoner by Shelby's men near Springfield, Missouri, but was shortly thereafter exchanged and rejoined his regiment, with which he fought until the close of the struggle. He established an excellent record for bravery and fidelity, and when honorably discharged and mustered out of the service, at Omaha, Nebraska, returned to his Missouri home.
 
Mr. Truskett continued to be engaged in farming in Cooper, Morgan and Moniteau Counties, Missouri, until 1870, and in that year went to Vernon County, where he made his home and carried on his agricultural activities until 1890. In that year he located in Washington County, Oklahoma, settling on a farm ten miles south of Caney, Kansas, consisting of 100 acres, where he was living at the time of his death, in 1896. He was laid to rest in the cemetery at Caney. Mr. Truskett was a republican and a faithful member of the Christian Church.
 
He was married in 1841, in Ohio, to Miss Elizabeth Williams, who was born September 1, 1820, at Crabapple Orchard, Pennsylvania, and was a schoolmate of the great statesman and politician, James G. Blaine, at one time a candidate for the presidency of the United States."

Back to Frederick and our dear Truscotts. George's faithful wife, Hannah Rebecca (Marman) Truscott, would die on May 3rd, 1889. Daughter Hannah R. Truscott would never marry. She lived out her life in Frederick, but not in the family home on South Market Street as it would be sold by Hannah and sister Sarah in 1892. Hannah is said to have lived at the Home for the Aged on Record Street. This is where she would pass on March 10th, 1921. Both Hannahs (mother and daughter) joined George on the family plot in Mount Olivet. 

By successfully making it through this week's "Story in Stone," in which I took you from Cornwall, England to Frederick, Maryland, please go "pump yourself up" with a delicious, savory snack cracker. You know the one I'm talking about;)

__________________________________________________________Are you up for a history walking tour through Frederick County's amazing "Garden Cemetery?"

This author (Chris Haugh) is leading various themed tours through Mount Olivet in April and May. Topics include:

*Frederick History 101 (1700s & 1800s personalities)

*Frederick History 101 (1900s-Present personalities)

*Frederick in the Civil War

*Mount Olivet and Black History of Frederick

Click button below for more info and a printable schedule of walking tours and local history classes taught in the historic Key Chapel!

A "Philly Soul," that was my takeaway after being lured over to take a closer look at seeing a unique name on a small gravestone. This occurred while on a recent walk through one of the "oldest" areas within Mount Olivet's 100-acre cemetery. More on my geographical reference to the "City of Brotherly Love" in a moment. I will share that the decedent died 15 years before our famous burial ground opened its gates in 1854.  This wasn't his first "place of rest," as he had been "removed" from elsewhere. His name —Phineas Watson.
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For starters, how many times do you stumble across the name Phineas, other then when reading the Bible, deciphering the initials of "the greatest showman in history," or watching the Disney Channel? I'm sure many of you readers have no idea what I'm talking about. First off, we'll go "old school" as the name Phineas (or Phinehas) has been around for centuries. It is of Hebrew origin boasting an impressive lineage of leaders, lawyers and esteemed artists. Ancestry.com says the name is derived from the word "Pinchas," which translates to "oracle" and "serpent's mouth." The attribution links the name to the great nephew of Moses and something called the  Baal Peor episode in the Bible. It's not the nicest story at face value as it involves "Pinchas" (aka Phineas) killing a hedonist couple  with a spear while they were in bed. In doing so, however, he zealously avenged God's name.

According to website TheTorah.com, "Pinchas" is portrayed as a hero in the Torah and Second Temple sources for killing Zimri and his Midianite lover, Cozbi. In the Bible's Numbers 25, the Israelites, stopping at the village of Shittim, are seduced by Moabite women (from the Moab kingdom east of the Dead Sea) into serving their gods, specifically Baal Peor. God is angered by this and instructs Moses to punish the transgressors. At the same time, God sends a plague into the Israelite camp. Before Moses and his appointees take action, an Israelite man brings a Midianite woman into the camp, apparently to be "intimate" with her. Pinchas sees this and immediately takes action:

"Num 25:7 When Pinchas, son of Elazar son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he arose from the assembly and took a spear in his hand, 25:8 and followed the Israelite into the chamber and stabbed both of them, the Israelite and the woman, through her belly. Then the plague against the Israelites was checked."

With a flare for the dramatic, we can now explain "the Greatest Showman." This Connecticut native and businessman was responsible for giving us "the Greatest Show on Earth" in the form of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. That's right, P. T. Barnum's full name is Phineas Taylor Barnum. He lived from 1810-1891.

And now for a softer, more modern, reference to the name Phineas in the form of the lovable Phineas Flynn, one-half of the popular Disney Channel cartoon Phineas and Ferb. He was a main character on the show which ran over four seasons between 2007-2015. I know it well because my son and I watched the program regularly — however, its been a while since I last saw it as my son grew up and is currently away in his freshman year in college. The series' premise follows stepbrothers Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher during summer vacation. 

Phineas is buried within Mount Olivet's Area NN/Lot 124. He is with other decedents moved here in April, 1907 from their original burial spot of Evangelical Lutheran Church's second burial ground. This was at the intersection of East Church Street Extended and East Street in the location later to be known as Everedy Square.

​I found a record on Ancestry.com that corroborated information in our cemetery database pertaining to Phineas being married. His wife, Catharine Watson, was also re-interred here in Mount Olivet and Area NN back in 1907. However, she is not buried beside her husband, but instead is  located in the row in front of Phineas in Lot 125. Since all these graves in surrounding lots are removals (from other burying grounds), they are packed in very tightly with most stones touching one another. Born October 25th, 1777, also in Philadelphia, Catharine died on April 21st, 1855. She was originally buried side by side with Phineas in the the Old Evangelical Lutheran Graveyard on the east side of Frederick City.

This would be a very challenging story, with little obvious information to sift through. I found that I had to look closely at scarce references to friends, relatives and acquaintances in order to try to understand the life of Phineas Watson. My assistant and I also had to do a deep dive on alternative sources such as property transactions found in land records within the state and county records.

​Marilyn Veek searched the Frederick County Register of Wills, Frederick County Orphans Court, and came up with a last will and testament for Phineas, and another from Catharine. In Phineas' document, made in October, 1836, we learn that Phineas and Catharine had no direct heirs living in the form of children (as far as we know). Phineas' executors were well-known Frederick citizens John P. Thomson, John Baltzell, and Henry Doyle. I've written past stories on the first two, having no difficulty whatsoever in learning about their respective past lives before winding up in Mount Olivet. 

Phineas bequeathed all his holdings to his "dearly beloved wife Catharine Watson during her life." He made provisions to give his belongings to a sibling and her children after the death of his wife. 

The fine, upright stone of marble states that Ann was the wife of Lacon Lambe and lived from 1770 to March 17th, 1844. The couple married on November 19th, 1803. Ann Lambe's husband is also buried here, and lived until 1861 to the ripe old age of 91. He can be found with his adult child's (Mary Ann Whitely) family in Somerset, PA at the time of his death. Lacon was a native of Bath, England and, before immigrating to the United States, worked in conjunction with his father as a grocer specializing in the sale of teas, sugars, spices and coffees.

Phineas also mentions the potential sale of stocks with dividends going to benefit the children of William Hunt of Washington, DC, and another individual, Tabitha Appleby (wife of Washington Appleby) and resident of Montgomery County, MD. I guess we can call our subject "Philanthropic Phineas" in addition to "Philadelphia Phineas." Regardless, what a kind "Philly Soul."

From looking at documents like the will and other land records, we uncovered the following land dealings in Frederick County:

December 3rd, 1835: Phineas Watson bought from George and Ann Cole the eastern half of lot 286, which we believe to be located at today's 221 East Church Street. The house here now dates only to around 1900, but the earliest owner was Frederick Kinckley, a carpenter.

November 9, 1837: Phineas and Catherine sell half of lot 286 to Henry Lare and Thomas O'Neill. After Phineas' death, Catharine held mortgages for Daniel Martin and William Laley (a gravestone mason) at different times but didn't own any property herself.

Catharine Watson also calls out three women to give varying sums of money too. These echo children mentioned nearly twenty years earlier by Phineas and include Lydia E. Hunt (daughter of deceased Washington, DC bookbinder William Hunt), Harriet Burdett of Howard County, Harriet's daughter Achsah Elizabeth Burdett, and Ann Maria Appleby (daughter of Washington and Tabitha Appleby).

As for Lydia E. Hunt, I believe she may well be a cousin through Phineas' mother. Focus immediately shifted to her father's origins. Marilyn conducted a familysearch.com search and found a family tree of William Hunt which  showed that Ann (Watson) Lambe, like her husband (Lacon), was born in England to parents Richard Watson and Catharine Hunt, but gives no source. This is a bit confusing because Ann (Watson), supposedly born in 1770, is two years younger than Phineas. My premise for the onset has been that of Phineas Watson being born in 1768...in Philadelphia!

My assistant went on to find that William Hunt (1783-1829), the bookbinder, is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Washington, DC. He looks to be a first cousin of Phineas (on his mother's side) and gives rise to the Watson estate gift going to William's daughter, Lydia Hunt, who married David Todd on May 23rd, 1843. The couple would move to Greensburg, Westmoreland, PA.  
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In the case of Miss Appleby, we connected the dots to Phineas' mention of a Tabitha (Mockbee) Appleby in his will. It was stated that a husband was Washington Appleby who I soon found to be from a pretty colorful, and "rough and tumble" family living in Montgomery County back in the early 19th century. Mr. Appleby, like his brothers, father and grandfather appear in county records quite often for the wrong reasons, and usually in front of a magistrate. The family was destitute. The Maryland Gazette carries a mention of the state giving "relief" to Washington in 1830.

​I found that Tabitha and Washington Appelby married in 1827 and had at least one daughter together, Ann Maria, whom Catharine writes that she (herself) "acted the part of a mother" by raising the young child until an affliction prohibited her (Catharine) from doing so. At this time, Ann Maria went to live with her aunt, the forementioned Harriet Burdett. I'm assuming Tabitha died or had a debilitating illness herself which caused the Watson's interest in the young child's welfare. 

I  would later learn that Harriet (Appleby) Burdett (1797-1880) is buried in the Stackhouse Family Cemetery in Poplar Springs, Howard County. However, I don't know what became of Ann Maria Appleby. Reading this information makes me think that Mrs. Watson perhaps played some greater role in educating or working with poor and orphaned girls over her lifetime. Or, maybe she just had a big heart in seeing the plight of these youngsters in poverty situations, be they related to her, or not. 

We may not have figured out much on our mystery couple, but we had a few "persons of interest" that may show us the light. So, it's time to go back in time to see if I could glean anything further about Phineas or Catharine and why they came to Frederick. My favorite find  in research was a photocopy of an entry for the marriage of Phineas Watson and Catharina Heyl in the combined church ledger records of St. Michael's and Zion Lutheran Church in Philadelphia on December 4th, 1802. This at least connects Phineas' gravestone epitaph to Philadelphia in wedlock, as I'm still hopeful that is where his birth occurred.

If we trust the logic used in deciphering the fascinating connection to William and Lydia Hunt in both Phineas' and Catherine's wills, combined with the info on Phineas' sister Ann Watson, then we can speculate that our subject's parents are Richard Watson and Catharine Hunt. As for the parents of Catharine (Heyl) Watson, I found a baptismal record that could be hers. It shows a Catharine Heel, daughter of Revolutionary War soldier Phillip Heel (1739-1810), and wife Catharine Zeiglerine. Could this be Phineas' Catharine Watson in Mount Olivet's Area NN?

​The best I could muster in scanning the 1790 and 1800 US Census records for the City of Philadelphia were instances of Philip Heyl (1739-1810), a baker by profession, living on the east side of Water Street. On this same street, I found a John Watson in the 1790 and 1800 census records but the name (obviously) and age doesn't quite work out right for this to be Phineas' father.

A little more pecking around led me to find a Richard Watson who had died back in April 1775 on the eve of the American Revolution. This man was a talented craftsman and affiliated with another named James Reynolds who is noted for his intricate woodwork in connection to furniture (particularly chairs and side tables) and particularly framing for paintings and portraits at the time.  I found a fascinating passage from www.Chipstone.org, the website of the Chipstone Foundation, a Wisconsin-based foundation dedicated to promoting American decorative arts scholarship:

"Like most craftsmen of his stature, Reynold’s took apprentices and almost certainly employed journeymen. He also appears to have been associated with Richard Watson, a London carver who immigrated to Philadelphia before 1774, when the latter’s name appeared on the Provincial Tax List. Reynolds witnessed Watson’s will, probated on April 27, 1775. William Macpherson Hornor alluded to a business connection between the two men in his Blue Book: Philadelphia Furniture (1935). Although he did not cite his source, Hornor noted that Watson made “1 Pair Mahoganey brackets” and “1 Pair Paint’d Do.”[17]

The #17 at the end of the passage refers to the exact bibliographic source: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/philadelphia/taxlist/northward1774.txt>. Will of Richard Watson, probated April 27, 1775, Philadelphia Wills, 1775, no. 115, p. 134, City Hall, Philadelphia. William Macpherson Hornor, Blue Book: Philadelphia Furniture, William Penn to George Washington (Philadelphia: by the author, 1935), p. 284.

Was Richard Watson, the noted carver and gilder of Philadelphia in the 1770s, and direct from London, the father of Phineas Watson? Its certainly not far-fetched to think this man could have been in Philadelphia by 1768, the year of Phineas' birth. 

I saw a brief summary of witnesses of Richard Watson's will of 1775, and these included James Reynolds and Richard's wife named Elizabeth (who served as executrix) and his father named George. In this case, what became of Phineas after the death of his father? We can assume he was raised by his mother into adulthood, or perhaps it was a relative or family friend. Maybe he was orphaned? Regardless, it would certainly make for a soft spot in the heart for other children experiencing the same situation with the loss of a parent(s).

This doesn't resolve the issue of Ann Watson's supposed 1770 birth in England, but that could have been an erroneous birthdate, or the statement that she was born in England could have been wrong. That family tree had a name of Catharine for Ann Watson's mother as well. That's certainly not Elizabeth, but could there be an error here as well? Anyway, I am excited that there is a chance here for discovering Phineas' father, and perhaps a clue to unlock Phineas profession if he learned the carving talents of Richard.

Marilyn dug up these land transactions (selling lots) involving Phineas, done shortly after his marriage to Catharine. 

May 22nd, 1805: Phineas Watson to Jno Meer - west side of "Seventh and Delaware Street"  between High and Chestnut Streets  - 17 feet wide and 81 feet westward, bound on the south and west sides by other land of Phineas Watson.

May 17th, 1806: Phineas Watson to Simon Gratz -- west side of Seventh Street from the River Delaware between High and Chestnut Streets - being part of the larger lot that Phineas bought from the High Sheriff on July 6th, 1800 deed D 185

Aug 14th, 1805:  Phineas Watson to Jno Meer  - description seems the same as EF 19/537

Again, it's just interesting that these properties are located near to the forementioned Phillip Heyl and John Watson. Water Street is located along the Delaware River. 

This leads us to believe that this was the probable time of departure from Philadelphia, and the couples' move to western Maryland around 1806.  However, it would not be Frederick right away. I found only two census records for our subjects.  We find them in the 1810 US Census living in Washington County. However, study of land records show the following transactions involving Phineas in the vicinity of Elizabethtown (later renamed Hagerstown). The earliest coming in 1807.

June 1st, 1807: Phineas Watson bought from Michael Hager a 92 3/4 acre tract of land that included part of Hager's Delight, part of Cellar's Resurvey, part of Cellar's Establishment, part of Pleasant Garden, part of Friendship Ended, part of Hagers Fancy, and part of Fertile Meadow. He sold this property to George Lyday on March 31, 1810.

April 10th, 1810: Phineas Watson bought from Michael Rudicill 10 1/2 acres along the road from Elizabeth Town to Green Castle. He sold this land to Frederick Wolfersperger on April 11th, 1812. 

By 1820, the Watsons are residing in the Goshen District of Montgomery County according to the US Census. This is near Clarksburg, and yes, we found land transactions by Phineas here as well.

January 13th, 1813: Phineas Watson bought from Zachariah Waters, trustee for the sale of the estate of Godfrey Waters, 64 3/4 acres part of Warfield's Vineyard

May 19th, 1817: Phineas Watson bought from Otho Willson 3/8 acre part of Moneysworth along the "great road" in the town of Clarksburgh

February 14th, 1823: Phineas Watson paid $43 for the household goods and furniture of Thomas Marman

February 7th, 1823: Phineas Watson bought from Alexander Winsor 28 square perches of part of Moneysworth and part of Woodport

July 15th, 1831: Phineas Watson sold to Elisha Lewis all of the above property

The household of 1820 shows Phineas and Catharine, but also a female child under 10 and an older female over 45. Who was this mystery child? Likely a youngster taken in for benevolent purposes by the "Godly" couple. Here, too, in this census, we get our only glimpse at Phineas in regards to an occupation as the census says he is engaged in agriculture. 

In scouring the census, I found nearby neighbors in this Clarksburg vicinity to the Watsons. These included the earlier mentioned Washington Appleby and the Harriett Burdett family. I could not find the Watsons in the 1830 Census of Montgomery County. The chronology seems to indicate that this is where they would reside before moving into Frederick City by the mid 1830s. We base this presumption  on the land transactions by Phineas shown earlier. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything more on Phineas regarding his last four years of life in Frederick. All we know is that he and Catharine were members of Evangelical; Lutheran Church.

That leads us to the death of Mr. Watson. This occurred on October 20th, 1839. The burial ledger of Evangelical Lutheran states that his death came on suddenly and as a result of apoplexy-heart disease. Diarist Jacob Engelbrecht made an entry a day later in his celebrated diary saying:

"Died last night in the 71st year of his age Mr. Phineas Watson of our town. Buried on the Lutheran Graveyard. A note was later added that "He was born in Philadelphia July 4, 1768." 

Everyone in town must have been fascinated by the assumed fact that Mr. Watson was very proud of being born in Philly, perhaps his life's greatest highlight? All I can say is "Go Phillies, Sixers, Flyers....and E-A-G-L-E-S!"

That's the end of the road for me in seeking out more sources on the internet. Without direct heirs, it's as if it was the end of a legacy for Phineas Watson as well. All that remains is that gravestone here at Mount Olivet to prove he once walked the Earth. His wife certainly kept his memory alive for another 16 years until her death on April 20th, 1855. Catharine would be buried the next day.

So that is all I can tell you about this "Philly Soul" —a man named Phineas who was proud of the fact that he was born in Philadelphia. He may have been the son of a talented 18th century immigrant craftsman from London, and may have possessed some of those talents himself. Phineas, I wish I could have learned more about you and your wife Catharine. I hope it was a good life, and don't worry, I will never forget this meandering research quest each and every time I pass by your graves in that interesting cemetery area of NN.

In going through cemetery burial records, my talented research assistants Donna Lacagnina and Marilyn Veek discovered that we had the same individual entered twice in our records under different names. We apparently had a lady named Mary "Polly" Conrad  in an unknown/unmarked burial here at Mount Olivet. We also have a woman named Mary "Polly" Grosch (1783-1841) with a known burial space of Area NN/Lot 128.  Donna and Marilyn made this discovery by going through FindaGrave.com memorial pages and found that both "Marys" were assigned to the same grave lot (NN/Lot 128), and grave space. The accompanying photo of the gravestone (on FindaGrave.com) on this location for Mary Grosch substantiates the presence for the Mary Grosch burial and entry. However, the Mary "Polly" Conrad entry left plenty of questions with no such stone to be found as this was an unmarked grave as assumed.

Donna and Marilyn are with the Friends of Mount Olivet membership group, and next consulted our cemetery database which would show that both "Marys" (Mary "Polly" Grosch and Mary "Polly" Conrad) not only shared the same birth and death years, but were born and died on the same days as well. This is when Donna and Marilyn began to look closer, assuming an error had occurred in duplicative data entry here at Mount Olivet. 
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​Our database entries did not add a great deal of vital and family info outside of a full birthdate of December 7th, 1783 and death date of August 29th, 1841. Both entries also included the same name for both Marys' mother. This was Hannah Conrad. However, both entries would also point to each other in a very interesting set of statements in the optional "Remarks" section at the bottom of each entry page.  Mary "Polly" Grosch's page reads:

"See Mary "Polly" Conrad buried in NN-128-10. Removal from Old Lutheran Graveyard, Frederick, Md. Mary was a free Mulatto woman who was raised and worked for the Grosch family. As a result, she went sometimes by the name of Mary "Polly" Grosch. However, her real name was Mary "Polly" Conrad."

This was extremely interesting to learn, especially in regard to Mary "Polly" being referred to as a "free Mulatto woman." On top of that, she possesses one of the largest memorials in this particular cemetery area.  Her gravestone is what we call a "ledger," or "tablet," memorial or marker. Again, she is referred to on the stone simply as Mary Grosch with a death date of August 29th, 1841, dying in the 57th year of her age.       

A ledger stone is an inscribed stone slab usually laid into the floor of a church to commemorate or mark the place of the burial of an important deceased person. Think of accounting ledgers, and ledger paper and notepads—long and narrow.
 
​Ledger stones may also be found as slabs forming the tops of chest tombs. An inscription is usually incised into the stone within a ledger line running around the edge of the stone in the same manner a ledger book contains stacked rows of recorded information and numbers. Such inscription may continue within the central area of the stone, which may be decorated with relief-sculpted or incised coats of arms, or other appropriate decorative items such as skulls, hourglasses, etc. Stones with inset brasses first appeared in the 13th century.

Traditionally, these memorials are found in Colonial-era burying grounds, and generally reserved for the upper class. The Grosch family of Frederick was certainly prominent, but it is fascinating to see a stone of this size on the grave of a "person of color," no less a single woman of color. She certainly must have carried clout in the community and her greater family. If anything else, the simple inscription on the face of this particular ledger stone states that Mary "Polly" Grosch was a "Faithful member of the Lutheran Church."

​Exactly eight years ago this month, I penned a multi-part "Story in Stone," in which  I explained my attempt in searching for the earliest Frederick residents of color to be buried in Frederick’s Mount Olivet Cemetery. The rural cemetery opened in 1854 and specifically catered to Frederick’s white community, an unspoken and understood practice not only here and the Deep South, but in many places in the North as well. Separate burying grounds, or separate sections within established graveyards, had been set up by churches or beneficial societies for the black populace. This was no different with how churches had evolved, marking a color divide with religion (ie: the Methodist Episcopal Church vs the African Methodist Episcopal Church). The same was true here in Frederick as well. From before the time of the Civil War up through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, many cemeteries would remain segregated with “unwritten” and, in some cases, “written” rules to back the claim.
 
Mount Olivet is the largest cemetery in Frederick County. Today, it operates without discrimination in burying people regardless of color, creed, religion, sex and national origin. At the same time, Fairview Cemetery, located on East Church Street extended/Gas House Pike continues a proud tradition of service as the predominant “black cemetery” of town. This is simply a historic and cultural precept.

My fascination with Mary "Polly" Grosch, or Conrad, was one of breaking the color barrier in death. She was described as being Mulatto, or mixed race (black and white). First off, here was a woman that was a Free Black living (and dying) in Frederick at a time long before the Emancipation Proclamation and the American Civil War. She died in 1841 at the age of 57. The question remains: Was she a former slave? If so, when was she manumitted, and by whom? As a matter of fact, were her parents (or just one of them) slaves? Who was Hannah Conrad?

Second, it is interesting to learn of Mary "Polly," a woman of color, being originally buried in Frederick's second Evangelical Lutheran burying ground. The Lutherans had two such downtown graveyards in Frederick. The first was located on East Church Street behind the church edifice. You can still see ancient gravestones there today, but a traditional expanse, or field, of stones is not what you will find. The Schaeffer Center, the congregation's early Sunday School, eventually displaced many a gravestone and likewise decedents, when it was built in 1892. It fronts East Second Street, on the north end of the Lutheran church property. Many of these stones can be found propped up along the vintage Sunday School structure.

A second Lutheran burying ground would open down the street on the southeast corner of East Church Street extended and East Street. This is where the Lerner Collection (formerly Frederick Coin Exchange) and Talbots are located today within Everedy Square. I think this is most likely the place of Mary "Polly's" original burial, because this ground and its decedents were moved to Mount Olivet in 1907 to Area NN.

Area NN is an interesting one here in Mount Olivet. It’s shape is somewhat triangular as it sits against the western boundary of the cemetery, not far from the Barbara Fritchie and Thomas Johnson gravesites.  The section often raises curiosity among visitors as the stones within are somewhat positioned very closely together—almost too close together, but there is a reason. Most of the people interred here today, came from other burial grounds that once graced downtown Frederick.
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Many of these gravestones have death dates that predate Mount Olivet’s opening in 1854, and there are several examples written in German. The Colonial architecture is clearly evident and the rationale for these stones placed so close together lies in the fact that these comprise church group reburials dictated by the trustees of local congregations. Three different churches bought the bulk of the lots on NN — the Presbyterian, Evangelical Lutheran and Methodist Episcopal. These churches once had their own designated burying grounds downtown, but elected to transfer bodies via mass removal to Mount Olivet, allowing for re-use or resale of the former graveyard properties.

This was certainly not an uncommon practice for the time, and in the case of Area NN, most of this reburial activity occurred in 1907-1908. This option was designed to take the congregations out of the graveyard business, and maintenance thereof, deferring the job to an entity that solely was suited to handle the assignment. 
​
As for the makeup of the property, the Methodists are to the left, Lutherans in the middle (see tall obelisk monument in middle) and Presbyterians to the right. 

Marilyn brought the situation of both Mary "Pollys" to my attention, and we started searching for more information on this singular woman with two names. Our intent was threefold: 1.)To correct our cemetery database with duplicative listings for the same woman; 2.)To correct any Find-a-Grave.com information on Mary Polly's memorial page, as we had made one a few years prior under the Friends of Mount Olivet management; and 3.)To learn anything we could about Mary "Polly," and discover how she may connect with the early prominent Grosch family of Evangelical Lutheran Church and Frederick Town.

Our first endeavors included a consultation with Jacob Engelbrecht's heralded diary, and then a search to see what was on Ancestry.com for this woman. For those not familiar with Engelbrecht, he was an early resident of town, a tailor by trade, who kept a diary from 1819 until his death in 1878. He worked as a tailor and lived out most of his life on West Patrick Street next to Carroll Creek and across the street from legendary neighbor Barbara Fritchie.

Jacob Engelbrecht was a fellow parishioner of Mary "Polly" in Evangelical Lutheran Church, and as usual, his diary did not disappoint. We found the following entry dated August 29th, 1841:

"Died this afternoon in the year of her age, Miss Mary Grosch, granddaughter, or rather niece I should say, of old Mrs. Kimboll, Buried on the Lutheran graveyard."

I was quite familiar with the early Grosch family and their connection to the church, not to mentian Mrs. Catharine (Grosch) Kimboll (also spelled Kimball), a notable early businesswoman of Frederick Town. She ran a tavern on West Patrick Street from 1797-1828 that hosted many early statesmen such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. It was called "The Sign of the Golden Fleece." This structure, located near the northeast corner of West Patrick and Court streets ,would eventually become Talbott's Tavern and later the City Hotel—Frederick's prime lodging spot throughout the century, eventually yielding to the Francis Scott Key Hotel that would be built on the original footprint.

Mrs. Kimboll was the former Catharine Grosch, daughter of an early German settler in town named Johann Conrad Grosch (1712-1794). Mr. Grosch is commonly known as "Conrad Grosch" and was one of the first members of Frederick's Evangelical Lutheran congregation, as he came to the area a short time after the town's founding in 1745.  Grosch was a great benefactor and one of the first builders of the original large ediface of the church on East Church Street, begun in 1752.

I recalled that Mr. Grosch was also an early slave owner. This wasn't uncommon, as I recall years ago being surprsed to learn that some of our early German settlers of Frederick owned slaves. Michael Roemer (1715-1800) was another leading member of this congregation, and his slave Adam Cooms (aka Combs and Coomes) is buried on the Evangelical Lutheran Church property in an unmarked grave.

Old local histories state that Cooms (c.1739-1824) helped build the Lutheran Church, and was the only Black man to be a regular (confirmed) member of the church at the time of his death. He was also the first Black individual buried in the Lutheran Graveyard in the year 1824. 

​Michael Roemer (aka Raymer) is buried on the church grounds downtown, as is Johann Conrad Grosch. Roemer's gravestone is still here, however there is not one for Conrad Grosch or his wife Maria Sofia (Gutenberger) Grosch (1717-1785). I found it odd that our Mary "Polly's" gravestone was featured on the latter's FindaGrave memorial page. Two other Grosch family members are here in unmarked graves in son Adam Grosch (1754-1785) and a mystery lady named Salome Grosch (1721-1794) according to church records. Perhaps she was Conrad's sister or cousin?

Conrad Grosch was born May 18th, 1712 in Eichloch in "Rheingrafischen Hernschaft" (now Rommersheim, in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). He married (Maria Sophia Gutenberger) in 1737 in her hometown of Woellstein, Alzey. The couple came to America in 1748, the same year Frederick County was created out of Prince Georges County.

On the journey across the Atlantic, Conrad and Maria Sophia would bring one son and two daughters— one of which was Catharine (Grosch) Kimboll. Once here, they expanded their family to include four sons and four daughters: Maria Dorothea Grosch (1739-1810) married Col. William Beatty; Peter Grosch (1741-1796); Catharine Margaret Grosch (1745-1831); Henry Grosch (1749-1749); Johann Michael Grosh (1749-1777); Christina Grosch (1752-1808) married Matthias Buckey; Anna Barbara Grosch (1752-1828); married Col. Elie Marion Williams); Adam Grosch (1754-1785). Catharine married William Kimboll, a saddler by profession, in the early 1760s. The couple had at least one daughter, Maria Barbara in 1763, but William seems to vanish from the records by the late 1790s.

With this information, coupled with our records saying that Mary "Polly's" mother was a Hannah Conrad, how could Catharine be our subject's grandmother? I acutely picked up on the interesting connection with the name Conrad however, as this was Catharine's father's first name of course. This led me to two online databases of baptisms for Evangelical Lutheran Church. The first can be found on Evangelical Lutheran Church's website, twinspires.org, in the preservation section. The second comes from late Genealogist Bob Fout's website, bobfoutgenealogy.com, under FELC Baptisms 1780-1785.

Note the individual "Polly," baptized on December 21st, 1783. This is two weeks after her birth on December 7th. She is our Mary, as her mother is Hannah, and there is a direct connection to the Grosch family. I think the mystery is partially solved! Conrad is not a last name of her mother, and sponsor, Hannah. Rather, Hannah is listed simply as Conrad Grosch's negro woman, without a last name. Blame the error on the vintage ELC Baptismal Ledger not having wider columns to write this information. I think we can say with surety that Hannah was a slave of Conrad Grosch.

I decided to peck around in both of these databases a bit more and eventually found the following entry from June 11th, 1775. It is a baptism for a child named Jacob, the son of negroes Henry and Hannah. Conrad Grosch and wife Sophia are the sponsors. Could Jacob's mother be the same Hannah who gave birth to Polly eight years later in December, 1783?

Again, we see Conrad Grosch in the picture. However, what happened to Henry over that eight year span. Was he Polly's father? Or was it someone else?

I finally consulted a hardback volume entitled A History of Evangelical Lutheran Church. The majority of the book contains a history of the church written in 1938 by a Gettysburg Seminarian named Dr. Abdel Ross Wentz. The book was published, compiled and brought up to date by Amos John Traver in 1988. I looked for anything I could find on Mary "Polly," and Mrs. Kimboll, as there were several references to Conrad Grosch as you can imagine as he was also one of the earliest church elders. On page 185, I found the following passage that gave me great satisfaction in discovering:

"A question of order was raised in 1811 when (Rev. David Frederick) Schaeffer catechised a mulatto girl and then proposed to confirm her. The action of the council was that 'a majority of the church council resolved that Mr. Schaeffer should confirm Mrs. Kimbold's (sp) Mullate Girl and should let her come to the communion as the last one in the church or as Mr. Schaeffer thinks best.' The record does not state , but knowing Schaeffer's interest in the blacks and all needy souls we may conclude that the girl was confirmed and was admitted to the communion table after all others had been communed. And knowing his tact and prudence we may conclude that she was seated, not in the main auditorium on the left-hand side where the other women sat, but in the gallery at the back of the church. This custum with reference to negroes continued in the church until the issues of the Civil War were raised, and it was renewed towards the close of the century."

Mary "Polly" was about 27 years old at this point. Could this be Mrs. Kimboll's "mulatto girl?" I would think that if an exception be made for a person of color to be confirmed in Frederick's early Lutheran Church, it would certainly be a person with a connection to church builder and former leader, Conrad Grosch who had died in 1794. Secondly, I'm now thinking that Polly's confirmation name was likely "Mary." This would explain the duality of names, and would be appropriate for a number of reasons, especially since her baptismal sponsor was Mary Sophia Grosch. Perhaps there are confirmation records that need perusing to prove this fact? And don't forget the inscription on Mary "Polly" Grosch's ledger stone as being "a faithful member of the Lutheran Church." This was a highly important accomplishment for a person of color, just as Adam Cooms would make the history books as the slave who helped build Evangelical Lutheran's first church in Frederick Town. My friend Marcia Hahn was kind enough to find the Church Minutes from January 1811 in which the church council discussed the issue of Ms. Grolsch potential confirmation. Unfortunately those records are written in German in the 1811 Evangelical Church Minutes Book,  but I submit them below anyway. (If you know German, please kindly translate this record and feel free to add the passage in the comments at the end of the story.)

Twenty-three persons were confirmed in Frederick's Evangelical Lutheran Church and here is the original list of those individuals from Church records. Note that Polly Grosch was last to be listed in the 23rd position on this document (​ELC Vol III pg 319).

In my research, I did find this interesting biographical piece on the state's Maryland Historical Archives website regarding Catharine Kimboll's brother, John Michael Grosch. This son of Conrad and Mary Sophia Grosch died in 1777 while serving in the American Revolution at the Battle of Germantown (PA). Note the section toward the bottom listing the decedent's nieces. Here lies the puzzling mention of a female named "Mary" with no other supporting documentation. Why is she just out there like an island? Apparently she is a daughter of one of Michael's siblings, but which one? Likely one with a last name of Grosch which leaves Peter or Adam.

Anyway, searches for anything on a Conrad Grosch granddaughter named Mary turned up fruitless. The only thing I could find was Mary (Charlton) Grosch, wife of Peter Grosch, and an aunt of Francis Scott Key to boot.

Catherine Kimboll died at age 86 on May 18th, 1831. She was the last of her immediate family. Jacob Engelbrecht made note of her death in his journal and commented that she was buried in the Lutheran Graveyard. This most likely was the churchyard. ​Mary "Polly" Grosch would live another decade before her death in 1841. I almost forgot to check Evangelical Lutheran Church's Death Register for Mary "Polly's" death entry. To my delight, I would find "two for the price of one" to complete my research.

Wow! Now, how could these two ladies die so close together, and, fittingly, why is there no burial information for Mary, but there is information of her removal? Because these two ladies are the same person. Polly died of dropsy, also known as Edema. This is fluid retention, swelling caused by excess fluid buildup in the body's tissues. Mary "Polly" was 57 years of age at the time of her death.

I was not certain who made the plans for Mary "Polly's" burial. She would never marry, or have children. Did she have siblings or anyone else? Perhaps a Grosch cousin? Catharine's daughter Maria (Morris) had died in 1834 and is buried in South Carolina, so we can rule her out, unless it was one of her daughters of which she had a few. Jacob Engelbrecht refers to these ladies as a Mrs. Dugas and a Mrs. Shaw but they lived elsewhere. I presume that it may have been the Evangelical Lutheran congregation, itself, or a clergyman. This Black trailblazer certainly deserved an honorable memorial, especially considering how generous she was to the Church and Missionary Society with those donations at the time of her death. That was a good amount of money back in those days.

​Thanks to a late, final discovery by Marilyn, we would learn a bit more about our mysterious  Mary "Polly" in the form of a will in the Frederick County Courthouse records. This was written on July 29th, 1841, exactly one month before her death. Therein we find that Mary "Polly" had formidable wealth—even enough to purchase her own ledger gravestone! The first orders she gives to her executors Edward and John A. Mantz revolve around her own burial:

​"First, and principally, I commit my soul into the hands of Almighty God, and my body to the Earth to be decently buried at the discretion of my Executers hereinafter named, and after my debts and charges are paid. 2nd, I devise and bequeath forty dollars for a tombstone to be placed over my grave." 

EPIOLOGUE
Since the story's completion, my assistant Marilyn Veek was inspired to search for a manumission record for Mary "Polly" Grosch, and also one for her mother Hannah. She  was successful in finding Mary "Polly's" manumission thus confirming that she was a slave. More valuable information shows that Hannah was a slave of William Kimboll at least as early as 1765, 18 years before Mary "Polly's" birth in 1783.

The manumission of Polly (aka Mary) by Catherine Kimboll occurred on July 26th, 1810 by Frederick County Courthouse deed WR 37 647 (attached). Mary has "served her since her infancy."

Conrad Grosh's Last Will and Testament makes no mention of enslaved persons, however the 1795 inventory of his estate includes "1 Mulatto slave girl named Poll." Mary “Polly” would have been 11 years old at this time. 

​​According to his will, Conrad Grosh’s real and personal estate was to be sold. Marilyn was unable to find a deed by which Catherine Kimboll obtained Mary “Polly,” though presumably it was from Grosh's estate. However, there is a 1792 deed in which Peter Mantz sold a negro woman named Peggy Fisher to Elie Williams in trust for Catherine. Mr. Williams was Catharine's brother-in-law, as well as an executor for her father.

​Marilyn also uncovered a complicated set of deeds involving the mortgaging and sale of the negro woman Hannah. We can assume that this slave was Mary “Polly” Grosch’s biological mother. On August 28th, 1765, William Kimboll mortgaged Hannah "and her increase" to Christopher Edelen (Frederick County Courthouse Deed J 1288). On February 26th, 1766, William Kimboll mortgages to William Beatty and Peter Grosh various household goods and also a negro woman named Hannah (Frederick County Courthouse Deed K 397).  

​On March 15th, 1766, William Kimboll paid off his debts to Edelen and to Beatty & Grosh (2 deeds at K 415). He then immediately sells Hannah to John Beatty (Frederick County Courthouse Deed K 416).

​I often stop, and truly take in the human statues I see in our cemetery. Most often these are females, and come in the form of angels, "women in mourning state" and young cherubs. Recently, I spotted a young figure of a girl who looked quite angelic, but I don't know if she was actually depicting one of the heavenly variety as I didn't spy any wings. She is holding what looks to be a small bunch  of flower petals in her left hand, and appears to be in the process of dropping a petal (or petals) with her right hand —and on this very grave. I’m not sure of the exact significance of this act, but angels are often known to spread blessings.

I soon asked myself whether this funerary ornamentation was intended to be a representation of the young nine-year-old decedent in this grave space, or that of a like-aged chum showing affection and/or pity for young Rebecca M. Zacharias (August 25th, 1891-December 16th, 1899)?

I then thought about whether this marble art piece has a relationship to flower girls, you know, the ones utilized at weddings. Their role is to spread flowers or petals ahead of the bride, or hand them out to the guests. 

I decided to review the duty behind flower girls at weddings. Of course, job number one is to be incredibly cute and actually steal a bit of attention away from the marital couple. The flower girl is responsible for throwing flower petals on the ground as she walks down the aisle before the bride. The origin of the tradition is believed to have stemmed from symbolizing a leading of the bride from childhood to adulthood, and soon-to- be motherhood. It’s for this reason that the flower girl is also usually dressed in white, representing innocence, similarly to the color worn by most brides.
 
Rose petals are said to symbolize fertility and the couple's hope for children.  The tradition apparently began in Ancient Rome, where the flower girl serviced the bride and groom by carrying wheat and herbs. This was to bless them with prosperity and fertility. I also read that the tradition may have originated from superstition, with the flower girl throwing petals to ward off evil spirits. During the Renaissance, flower girls carried strands of garlic based on the belief that garlic repelled bad luck, along with vampires too as we all know.

In the Elizabethan era, wedding guests would scatter flower petals from the bride's home to the church. Flower girls followed musicians in the wedding procession, “carrying a gilded rosemary branch and a silver bride's cup adorned with ribbons.” The cup was usually filled with flower petals or rosemary leaves, as an alternative to a basket. Other alternatives included a small bunch of rosemary sprigs used as a sweet posy or a small floral bouquet, incorporating sprigs of fresh rosemary.

The Victorian flower girl most resembles the modern ones we all know. Victorian-era (1837-1901) flower girls were traditionally dressed in white, perhaps with a sash of colored satin or silk. Her dress, usually made of muslin, was intentionally simple to allow future use. The Victorian flower girl carried an ornate basket of fresh blooms or sometimes a floral hoop, its shape echoing that of the wedding ring and symbolizing that "love has no end."

Well, that's the story behind wedding flower girls, dropping petals at the happiest of life's occasions. So what then does this statuary monument here in Mount Olivet's Area R represent? ​The Victorians regularly used symbols for funerary art. The angel was a symbol of spirituality & the hand pointing downward traditionally symbolized “sudden death” or “mortality." Petals plucked from a whole flower is like a person leaving the whole of humanity —a journey traveled alone to heaven.
 
In researching further, I found the legend of St Dorothy. On her way to death, she was mocked by Theophilus of Adana in Luke's Gospel of the Bible. He asked for proof of the heavenly garden she was going to. After Dorothy's death, an angel visited him with a basket containing flowers and fruit in the middle of winter. This would correlate to our angel or girl on this particular memorial in the act of bringing proof that the deceased is in heaven.
 
The floral bouquets in the hands of angels can be found in some instances as spreading floral petals over hallowed ground. I think the bouquets are comprised of “roses” (symbol for love) and “forget-me-not” (symbol for remembrance). Sometimes the opposite is true as angels can also be shown as picking flowers, signifying the harvest of souls for heaven. 

We've talked before in this blog about the iconography of flowers in cemeteries. Here's a link to a story from seven years back. Interestingly, the cover image (of the story) was taken in this very, family lot of the Zacharias family. I had zeroed in on an old flower pot on the bookend side of Rebecca M. Zacharias' parents/grandparents large family marker. This is in Area R/Lot 81. 

So that's all I can tell you about this unique statuary monument. Naturally, I was equally curious to learn more about the young child under the monument—a poor soul who died at nine years of age, long before having the opportunity to walk down a church aisle while following a flower girl. 

I didn't expect to find much on little Rebecca Mealey Zacharias whose life spanned less than a decade. As I reported earlier, she was born on August 25th, 1891.  By dying in late December, 1899, she would never be enumerated in a US Census. Rebecca was the daughter of Horace C. Zacharias and Tempie Elizabeth Wilcoxon. She had one sibling, a sister named Hilda A. who was born in 1897.

Shown below are Rebecca's interment card from the Mount Olivet records, along with her obituary announcement and a report on her funeral from the Frederick News.

The obvious overarching title which is clearly legible is the word "Sleeping," a wholly Victorian notion toward death as this was the period when expressions such as "Resting in Peace" and "In Golden Slumber" came into existence in cemeteries and would soften the Puritanical attitude towards death as ambivalent and containing both terror at the possibility of eternal damnation and hope for deliverance.

Below "Sleeping" are three separate epitaphs, two of which come from the Bible. The first line is from Psalms 31:1 and reads, "In thee O Lord do I put my trust." The second, "Budded on earth to bloom in heaven," is especially poignant and speaks to the fact of a life cut short before its prime. The final epitaph comes from Colossians 3:3,  "Your life is hid with Christ in God."

In my scanning of local newspapers for anything more on Rebecca, I would find two memorials published during the year after her death (1900). These were submitted to the Frederick News by family members, and fittingly include references to both angels and flowers.

The larger Zacharias cemetery plot here in Mount Olivet's Area R is quite impressive. The family monument is located a few feet south of Rebecca's "flower girl" and is by far the largest in the area. The central family monument has the Masonic compass emblem on its face on its eastern side. On the opposite, west side, a monogram of J. F. Z. exists. Three generations of family are here in the form of Rebecca and her sister, her parents and her grandparents.

​Let's talk about Rebecca's parents, Horace Clinton Zacharias and Tempie Elizabeth Wilcoxon. Horace was born in Frederick on March 10th, 1867, the only child of John Flavius Zacharias (1842-1868) and wife Ann Rebecca (Miller) Zacharias (1839-1908). Horace's father, John Flavius Zacharias died the year after Horace's birth. I found John Flavius in the 1860 US Census living on the farm of his father, Christian Zacharias (1802-1875), a farmer of Emmitsburg District in northern Frederick County.

Thanks to a publication entitled The Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (published in 1905), I learned about the family progenitor who immigrated to America from Germany. This was Matthias Zacharias (1757-1825) who eventually settled in Stony Branch Valley, roughly three miles  southeast of Emmitsburg. He called his property "Single Delight." His son, also named Matthias Zacharias (1757-1825), was a Revolutionary War veteran who has a great story in connection with his old countrymen, the Hessian soldiers. These men were Horace C. Zacharias' Great-Great Grandfather and Great-Grandfather.

While researching this story, I discovered that my old friend, Michael Hillman, has included a great research of the Zacharias family and their properties on his Emmitsburg.net website. Click the link to read more, however we are going to focus on Horace Clinton Zacharias at this point as he was the man who erected the fine monument for Rebecca, and the large granite Zacharias stone in memory of his parents as his father's monogram adorns the western face with outlier markers for them, as he would also have for him and his wife, Tempie. I've been told that this monument is made from a very high grade granite, and likely cost a great deal at the time of purchase.

Surprisingly, Horace C. Zacharias does not have a biography in Williams' History of Frederick County. I had to piece together his life from reading newspaper articles. His obituary in 1946 was accompanied by a photo, so I could finally put a face with a name.

According to Horace Zacharias' obituary, the family lived at 100 East Third Street, in a house that he built in 1895. The earlier house on the property was owned by John W. Miller, his maternal grandfather. Horace John Miller was a butcher and Horace and his widowed mother were living with Miller in the 1870 census after his father's death. 

The family situation was the same for Horace a decade later as his Aunt Elizabeth Miller assumed the home after his grandparents' deaths in 1876 and 1877 respectively. He received an education in local schools.

On the very next day, the Frederick News printed a Frederick Business Index in the May 17th edition of their publication. I learned that Horace was doing more than just the "Occasional Club" activities as he was working in a business that perfectly befits his first name. He was proprietor of a livery business on today's Maxwell Alley between East Second and East Third streets. This was basically his back yard.

For those unfamiliar with the profession, a livery in the late1800s was an establishment that rented out horses for riding, or for pulling buggies or wagons. It also boarded horses for those who did not own a stable. For a price, the livery would feed, groom, and exercise a boarded horse, and also keep its stall clean. The livery provided feed and bedding. Horace would give his business the name Champion Livery.

I went on to find several articles over the next decade that praised Horace's business, and the way in which he conducted it. He would often be mentioned as bringing residents to special outings throughout the county, with frequent destinations being White Rock on Catoctin Mountain in the Yellow Springs area north of town, and Sugarloaf Mountain to the southeast of Frederick City. Articles talk of his bandwagon, busses and beautiful stock horses. Along the way, Horace would find a wife in Tempie Elizabeth Wilcoxon (b. May 3, 1867), daughter of Frederick lumberyard owner John A. Wilcoxon (1807-1883). 

As Horace's business was "off and running," or better yet, "trotting along," he kept himself active with volunteer work with his church, and within Frederick's Columbia Lodge. At Evangelical Lutheran Church, he became manager of the Sunday School, and would later be responsible for dedicating a memorial window to his mother, Ann Rebecca Zacharias, upon her death in 1908. He would become a Worshipful Master of the local Freemasonry chapter and was instrumental in the building and opening of the chapter's new home on West Church Street in 1902.

Around this same time, we see Horace C. Zacharias changing gears professionally. He would sell his Champion Livery business in 1901 to a man named George Edward Myers. Mr. Myers would operate this business until 1909 and a picture survives of his granddaughter Lizzie (Mary Elizabeth Stewart Myers) holding two horses outside the stable location on Maxwell Alley. This photograph appears in Gorsline, Cannon & Whitmore's Pictorial History of Frederick (1995) and is part of Heritage Frederick's rich collection.

In the 1910 census, Horace C. Zacharias gives his profession as that of a "Stock Dealer." I found a number of articles showing him in the purchase and sale of business stocks, and also in local real estate. Properties would come to include 37 and 39 East Third Street, along with 42 and 44 East Third Street. In addition, he acquired land east of Frederick on the southside of the Old Baltimore Turnpike (Rt 240) near the old Emmons C. Sanner Farm near Quinn Orchard Road. In the 1920s, Horace returned to his roots and dealt in livestock.

However, one of Zacharias' most savvy dealings would include purchasing property between Carroll Creek and today's Citizens Way, along the east side of Court Street. This occurred in 1900, and was later co-owned with a gentleman named James Burke. Nearly four decades later it would become the site of Frederick's first large scale supermarket. 

Horace C. Zacharias died on January 23rd, 1946. He had a great career as a local businessman. His death made front-page news and his funeral was well-attended. The only thing that was missing was the opportunity to see his daughter Rebecca fully blossom into adulthood. He would be laid to rest by her side on the family plot on January 26th.

Horace C. Zacharias' wife Tempie would live nine years before her death on February 2nd, 1955. Her mortal remains would be placed next to her husband and within a few short yards of her beloved daughter, Rebecca. 

I loved that Mrs. Zacharias' funeral announcement described the event as having "a profusion of flowers,"  so fitting as I will now always associate this funeral plot with flowers. Unlike Rebecca, the Zacharias' other daughter, Hilda Ann (Zacharias) Opel, would live a life eleven times as long as her deceased older sister. Hilda lived from 1897 to 1997 and is buried with her husband Charles A. Opel directly behind our "flower girl" —​Rebecca M. Zacharias.

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Last month, I came across the surname Grable in conjunction with our cemetery. In particular, I was looking for information on two sisters who were local dressmakers. They were buried here in June, 1895 after having been disinterred from Frederick’s Methodist Episcopal Church Graveyard, once located on the southeast corner of East 4th Street and Middle Alley (today’s Maxwell Alley).
​
The mortal remains of Jane Grable (1784-1854) and Sevilla Grable (1800-1853) are located in our Area NN, and I believed that they connect back to a German immigrant named Nicholas Samuel Grable (1695-1774), and his son John Grable (1722-1801) residing here in the county from the late 1700s. Information was scarce on these Grables, but I found a number of others in Mount Olivet under a variation of the name—Grabill.

Of the 15 decedents buried here with that spelling, I zeroed in on the earliest born and found William H. Grabill (1833-1897) and wife Maria Louisa (Hamilton). The next "earliest" were Jacob S. Grabill (1852-1905) and wife Emily (Kintz), and George Frank Grabill (1854-1942) and wife Ida M. (Barrick). To build suspense, I will share here that one of these three gentlemen died earlier than he should have due to a musical instrument. More on that in a moment.

All three of these "Grabills"  were related via Moses Ulysses Grabill, Jr. (1796-1861), the second of a succession of three Moses Grabills, farmers who would make their homes near Woodsboro. Moses Grabill, Jr. married Sarah Wolf in 1817. This man is not in Mount Olivet, but he, his wife, and parents are listed on a memorial located among other graves outside  St. John's Reformed Church in Woodsboro.

Moses Grabill, Jr. was a native of New Holland, (Lancaster County) Pennsylvania who fathered 15 known children including the forementioned William H. Grabill. 

George Frank Grabill has a striking tombstone dominated by text and located in Mount Olivet's Area S/Lot 127, about 20 yards north of our World War I Memorial Gazebo. He married into the Barrick family, one of the most prominent families in the Woodsboro District and purveyors of the storied stone quarry that has been in operation since 1874. A carpenter by trade, George Frank Grabill's obituary states that he was the second oldest male resident of Walkersville at the time of his death. That's an interesting accomplishment I guess!

​​Finally, that leaves me to tell you about Jacob S. Grabill. He particularly caught my attention when I originally researched his name in our cemetery interment database last month. The remark line of his entry reads as follows:
​
"Resided at 307 E. 3rd St., Frederick, MD. Died from injury from handling a piano."

I immediately wanted to know more. Jacob S. Grabill was born on December 27th, 1852.  I venture to wonder if the "S" stands for Samuel, a possible connection to the Grable sisters' ancestor Nicholas Samuel Grable. The 1870 census shows Jacob S. Grabill working on his father's farm with both his older and younger brothers. ​

Jacob married Emily "Emma" Kintz, daughter of Lewis and Margaret (Gehr) Kintz, in 1876 and took up residence in Frederick on West Fifth Street next to his in-laws. The couple would have two daughters, Myrtle born in 1877 and Katie M. born a year later. Jacob's profession was that of a butcher in the 1880 census, and I'm curious whether he was employed at the Baumgardner meat market which was located in close proximity to his home. ​

Sometime in the next decade, Jacob S. Grabill would change his profession, and unfortunately this would lead to a shortened life. He would now work as a self-employed drayman.  What's a "drayman" you may ask? Well, a drayman was historically the driver of a "dray," a low, flat-bed wagon without sides, pulled generally by horses or mules. Drays were used to transport all kinds of goods.​

In this line of work, I'm sure that Mr. Grabill was quite familiar with Mount Olivet as he likely was regularly employed to haul gravestones and monuments from out of town vendors delivering their works here by train. The Frederick train depot scene likely resembled the photo below showing draymen at a rail depot in Michigan at the turn of the century.

From a brief mention of a horse purchase by Jacob S. Grabill in the Frederick News, it seems likely that Jacob S. Grabill entered the industry in 1889. It was dangerous work as the following clippings from subsequent newspapers attest to. Not only were you lifting heavy objects, but you were moving said objects. One was relying on spoked wheels and horses traveling on roadways much different from those of today. There were dirt roads that would develop ruts in times of rain, snow and ice covered thoroughfares during winter, and any" paved" roads were made of brick and stone, not smooth-laid macadam like today. Trolleys in the streets and accompanying rails also added a degree of danger to the profession.

On the personal level, Jacob's daughter Myrtle became a teacher and was married at home on Christmas Eve 1902 to William H. Pentz of Mechanicsburg, PA. His father Jacob would pass away in November, 1903 after a long illness while a patient at the Montevue Home (county almshouse) just north of town. He is buried at Israel's Creek Cemetery between Walkersville and Woodsboro with his wife (Caroline) who died earlier.

That brings us to the fateful day of October 13th, 1905. I guess you could call it an "A0" kind of day for those musically inclined. Jacob S. Grabill was hired by Birely's Palace of Music to deliver an upright piano, maybe more, to the Frederick Fairgrounds in advance of the annual spectacle. Like other vendors, Birely's had a booth at the fair, and were interested in demonstrating the new Vough model, a "changeable pitch piano," to fairgoers.

This wasn't Mr. Grabill's first fair, or rodeo, to use the age-old phrase, as he had moved plenty of pianos in his professional experience. I desperately hoped that I would learn more details of the accident, but I can only speculate that the upright piano fell on him while he attempted to unload the large instrument at the fairgrounds. It appears that he was bedridden and housebound for over two weeks before succumbing to death on October 31st, 1905.

In scanning old newspapers, I did find the following advertisements in the local newspaper of October, 1905. At the very least, this gave me an idea of why the piano in question was needed for the fair, in addition to telling me the likely make and model of the item that fatally injured our seasoned drayman.

Jacob S. Grabill's funeral took place on November 2nd, 1905. He would be laid to rest in Mount Olivet's Area H/Lot 161. Widow Emma Kintz had buried her father here in 1885 and her mother in 1903. The Grabill's daughter Katie is also in this plot in an unmarked grave, as she was buried here in 1881. 

Luckily, the horse survived, but the culprit was not found. In the days to follow, Mrs. Grabill put the horse in question, plus the family business up for sale. She did not have to wait long for a willing buyer.

Sadly, Mrs. Kintz would have to endure another terrible blow just months later into the new year. Her daughter, Myrtle, would die of tuberculosis on March 18th, 1906. She would join her parents in Area H/Lot 161.

Emily "Emma" (Kintz) Grabill would live over three more decades, dying on December 9th, 1937. She would join the rest of her family in Mount Olivet as a few siblings and their spouses would also be buried in this plot.

​Sometimes the study of genealogy is quite melodic, wouldn't you say?

In early 1824, it was announced that the beloved French hero of the Revolutionary War, the Marquis de Lafayette, was returning to make a grand tour of America. The French aristocrat and military officer was a key ally to the American colonists during the War for Independence. He participated at numerous battles of the conflict including Brandywine, Gloucester, Barren Hill, Rhode Island, Monmouth, Green Spring and the decisive finale at Yorktown. Lafayette also spent time at Valley Forge, and served a trusted confidante of George Washington. His commitment to the cause of liberty and instrumental role in securing French support for the American Revolution engraved his name in the American history books. However, he would also play an important role in the local Frederick history book as well.

​Beginning in 1824, the Frenchman would travel more than 6,000 miles and visit 24 states over a 13-month span. My late friend, Theresa Mathias Michel (1926-2024), shared her thoughts on the subject in my 1995 documentary entitled Frederick Town. Here is a transcript of what she had to say on the special visitor who came to Frederick exactly 200 years ago:

“Lafayette did make this marvelous, triumphant tour of the United States fifty years after the Revolution. He was an elderly gentleman at the time. I think it’s a miracle that he managed to travel. It must have been uncomfortable and must have been very hard on him, but he persevered. He was feted and honored in a way that no one has probably been before or since.”

​Mrs. Michel’s interest in Lafayette’s visit was particularly understandable since her life-long home in Frederick’s Courthouse Square was within the center of an exciting scene in late December, 1824. The mirror townhome next door, known for the last century as the Ross House, played host to the special French dignitary. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Michel’s daughter, Tee, has been busy most of this past year in heading up the committee for planning/executing anniversary events relating to Lafayette’s 1824 stay in Frederick. This is equally personal for her because she grew up at 103 Council Street and currently owns, and resides within, the Ross House at 105 Council Street.

​Lafayette’s visit would not have occurred had it not been for the man who built these homes on Council Street in the early nineteenth century. He made his mark on Frederick in various ways and is buried in Mount Olivet. This gentleman was Col. John McPherson.
​
Col. McPherson led efforts to extend a courteous invitation to Gen. Lafayette. This would lead to our town being added to the general’s busy tour itinerary. You could say that he created history for us, but he also had a direct impact on the lives of Theresa Mathias Michel, daughter Tee and Mrs. Michel’s brother, Sen. Charles “Mac” Mathias through building the majestic townhomes that grace Council Street.

​The McPhersons
Col. John McPherson, Sr. was one of the largest landowners in western Maryland, and operated the largest iron factory in the region. A Pennsylvania native, John McPherson was born in 1760. He served in the Pennsylvania militia, being promoted at the age of 21 to lieutenant toward the end of the Revolutionary War in 1781. Col. McPherson was sent to Frederick to provide rations for British prisoners but by then, the war was nearly over. The trip, however, proved fruitful for McPherson, who ended up moving to Frederick in 1781. Until his death in 1829, John McPherson was a leading citizen and prominent figure in town.

McPherson was a member of the Common Council and served for many years as a county representative in the legislature. He entered the iron manufacturing business and became co-owner of the profitable Antietam Iron Works. Col. McPherson’s partner was John Brien, his son-in-law. Brien would later purchase, operate, and upgrade the Catoctin Furnace, started by “Rev War” patriot and Maryland’s first governor, Thomas Johnson, Jr.
​
At auction, McPherson and Brien bought the Council Street lots where the old county jail had originally stood. In 1817, the two men built two large mansions for themselves on the prime real estate adjacent the courthouse which is today’s Frederick City Hall.

​Mrs. Michel went on to say of the Council Street townhomes:
​
“The houses were very substantial, certainly for their time, for any time, and they were built as though they were manor houses in the country rather than in-town houses. In fact, they had stables, they had slave quarters, they had an icehouse which still exists in the house next door owned by the Ross family. I suspect there was an icehouse on this property which has been lost. There were coachmen houses and the gardens extended across Second Street for certainly another block in the beginning. Sometime between the first and second quarters of the 19th century, those gardens were obliterated, and houses built on that land. They were very much more than townhouses. They were mini estates.”

The senior McPherson had a son, John McPherson, Jr., born in Frederick in 1796. On December 23rd, 1823, the younger McPherson married Fanny Russell Johnson, granddaughter of the fore-mentioned Thomas Johnson, Jr. Like his father, Mr. McPherson played a prominent role in public affairs and was a successful businessman. He was manager of the Central National Bank and involved in the family iron business. The younger McPherson also would become a captain and colonel of the Frederick Light Horse Cavalry. He too would play a leading role in the planning for Lafayette’s visit.

​Col. John McPherson, Sr. is credited with extending the invitation on behalf of the committee he chaired, made up of the most prominent figures in the city and county. McPherson would travel to Baltimore to deliver the invitation to Lafayette “in-person” in 1824.

Supposedly it was President James Monroe who issued the formal invitation to the illustrious Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette to tour the 24 states of the Union. Our fifth president hoped that the former general, the last living of the Revolutionary War generals, might instill the “Spirit of 1776” into the younger generation of Americans. In the process, this was the federal period equivalent of Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour,” with the excitement generated, and the event celebrated the enduring bond between France and the United States.

In September (1824), the general arrived in Baltimore. He soon accepted the invite to visit Frederick, but no exact date could be given at that time. Meanwhile, the second official Cattle Show and Fair of the Frederick County Agricultural Society had already been considered for late October 1824. Col. McPherson was vice president of this organization which would decades later be responsible for giving us the Great Frederick Fair. Plans for a fall, 1824 Frederick County Cattle Show and Fair were cancelled when the Maryland Cattle Show was postponed to late November to accommodate the visit from the “Nation’s Guest” as Marquis de Lafayette would soon be labeled. The general would attend the Maryland show and receive membership in the Maryland Agricultural Society. He personally handed out premiums at the rescheduled state event. 

Gen. Lafayette was also made a Maryland citizen by a special act of legislature, and held a unique “French connection” to Frederick as he had guided many county troops in battle during the American Revolution. While these events were happening elsewhere in the state, a local committee under ocular specialist Dr. John Tyler, builder of the Tyler-Spite House on West Church Street, planned arrangements for the general’s eventual visit to town. His arrival would come in late December, a few weeks after addressing Congress at the US Capitol.

​On Christmas Day, the Frederick Town Herald newspaper shared news that Frederick would be visited the following Wednesday by the “Nation’s Guest.” Yuletide decorations were quickly replaced with French and American flags, and triumphal arches were built at the entrances to town to welcome the aging hero.

​Gen. Lafayette and his party arrived at the Monocacy Bridge (Old Jug Bridge) east of town on the morning of December 29th, where they were met by Frederick’s mayor, George Baer, along with members of Congress, various other officials and several military troops. Lafayette, himself would comment:
​
“I am highly gratified, gentlemen to meet you in your happy valley, where agriculture and manufacturing industry, practiced by a rapidly increased population are the reward of your patriotic and domestic virtue. Receive my best thanks for your kind welcome, for your affecting references, to past time, for your affectionate wishes, and permit me to hasten to the revolutionary companions whom you have had the much valued attention to bring with you.”

The general and his entourage then entered several fancy carriages pulled by elaborately harnessed teams of horses. The procession of carriages, militia, and citizens “on foot” headed to Frederick, whose streets were decorated with the fore-mentioned arches, one at Market and Patrick Streets and the other at Market and Fifth Streets. Between the arches, artillery, riflemen and infantry lined the streets. Every resident came to watch the historic event as estimates say that thousands of people lined the parade route through town. The 67-year-old Lafayette would soon be the toast of the town with parties, dinners and a grand ball thrown in his honor.

​At the courthouse, the second built structure for the purpose in our county’s history, attorney William Ross III (1772-1852) welcomed Lafayette’s procession and a Hagerstown company of riflemen saluted the general. Mayor Baer and Mr. Ross’ graves, like so many other planners of activities and participants of this great event, can be found in Mount Olivet. Ross' monument is in close proximity to the McPherson family plots in Area E, and his heirs through Charles Worthington Ross would eventually gain ownership of the home at 105 Council Street giving it a new name due to the subsequent generations of Ross family members to live there.

​Gen. Lafayette had a very short walk to his next destination in the form of Col. McPherson’s mansion on Council Street, place of his lodgings. A huge dinner-banquet was held that night in Joseph Talbott’s Tavern on West Patrick Street as a special illumination of town commenced. Two-hundred individuals attended after buying tickets for $4/each. Highlights included 13 toasts being made by a “who’s who” of Frederick’s past, and a presentation of an honorary apron by the local Masons. The Columbia Lodge No. 58 still has this priceless artifact in their museum collection to this day.

​Published in 1910, Williams’ History of Maryland has a detailed description of Lafayette’s time in Frederick, saying of the December 29th welcome banquet:

“Gen. Lafayette dined heartily and enjoyed especially the game, eating corn pone and possum and drinking old rye whiskey and sherry. Before the speeches began a number of songs were sung. William C. (Campbell) Russell sang the Star Spangled Banner and the Marsellaise hymn, the whole company joining the chorus. On learning that the author of the Star Spangled Banner was a native of Frederick and was living in Georgetown, the General declared that he would go to see him. Other songs were sung by Andrew McRobie, Lewis W. Glenn, Benjamin Rutherford and others.”

​“Our whole town is in an uproar – all about Lafayette. There were from 6 to 8,000 people in town yesterday and last night there was a general illumination and celebration.”
-Jacob Englebrecht, December 30th, 1824

The next morning, the general was greeted at Talbott’s Tavern by citizens, desiring to be introduced, between 10am and noon. Among these was Frederick’s diarist, himself.

“He is now receiving the citizens & strangers at Talbotts. Among the rest by the bye, I was one who was introduced to him by Colonel Ritchie. This afternoon he will receive the ladies at Colonel McPherson’s & tonight he will attend a ball at Talbott’s.”
-Jacob Engelbrecht  

The “Colonel Ritchie” that Jacob Engelbrecht mentions is Col. John Ritchie. Born in 1757, Ritchie was a Revolutionary War veteran and prominent local businessman who once owned a large dwelling and the property on the northeast corner of the Square Corner (Market and Patrick streets). The colonel died on November 11th, 1826 and was buried in the former All Saints Protestant Episcopal cemetery that once existed along Carroll Creek near the site of today’s linear park amphitheater area. Col. Ross is buried in Mount Olivet’s Area G/Lot 174.

​December 30th witnessed the greatest ball in Frederick’s history as it was held in one of the upper floors of the McPherson home. More than 200 people attended, with guests traveling from Virginia, Pennsylvania and every part of Maryland. A passage in TJC Williams’ History of Frederick County states:

"This ball was perhaps the most famous that ever took place in Frederick County. The Misses Creble, two fashionable milliners and mantua makers, it was declared in the newspapers at the time, were busy day and night for weeks making ball dresses for their customers. They had some French flowers which had been presented to them and which they cultivated with great care, preserving by some chemical process their beauty and fragrance. These were worked into headdresses. The costumes were of the gayest yet of the most republican character, the music was soul inspiring, the dancing was good, and refreshments seem to have been ample... all the delicacies that the palate could crave or the appetite enjoy, were served at intervals in great profusion."

After reading this, I immediately became interested in the mention of “the Misses Creble” in that illustrative passage. I was unfamiliar with the surname and postulated that this could be a typo or bastardizing of the name, so I immediately began searching Mount Olivet’s interment database. I found no Crebles as mentioned, but soon theorized that the name could be the locally found name of Grable/Grabill. I was met with instant success and found two women of this name buried in a very old section of Mount Olivet known as Area NN. 

​Here we have remains of individuals who died before our cemetery opened in 1854. The decedents in Area NN were moved in 1907 to this location from three former downtown burying grounds including the Evangelical Lutheran Burial Ground (formerly found where Everedy Square is now). Another churchyard of note and re-located here was the Presbyterian burying ground once located at the southwest corner of Dill and North Bentz streets. These bodies were moved here in the late 1800s. Finally, a third portion of NN, to the south of the other two, contains the mortal remains of the Grable sisters Jane and Savilla. They were buried here in June, 1895 and had been disinterred from Frederick’s Methodist Episcopal Church Graveyard once located on the southeast corner of East 4th Street and Middle Alley (today’s Maxwell Alley).

Information was very scarce on the Grables, but, as mentioned, I found two potential ladies in our cemetery database as people of interest. I don't know what there relationship is, but hoping it is that of sisters. Jane was born on February 11th, 1784 and died on January 28th, 1854, roughly five months before Mount Olivet Cemetery opened. On Ancestry.com, I found a Maryland christening record from June 1783 for a Jane Grable in Baltimore, however her birthdate is shown as February 10th, 1783. This individual, who could be the later Frederick dressmaker in question, was the daughter of Jacob and Martha Grable. Sevilla was born around 1800 and would die at age 53 on June 1st, 1853. As far as early Grables in Frederick, I found a German immigrant named Nicholas Samuel Grable (1695-1774), and his son John Grable (1722-1801) residing here from the late 1700s.

​Well, so much for that rabbit hole as I did not get far at all. So, let’s get back to Lafayette. After two days of events and entertainment, the French hero and his small party left Frederick the morning of December 31st. His next stop would be Washington, DC as he traveled southward on the Georgetown Pike towards the nation’s capital within a horse-drawn carriage.

​Of his visit to Frederick, Lafayette had this to say:

“The local tranquility which has blessed your delightful valley did not prevent its inhabitants taking a spirited part in the revolutionary and in the last war [War of 1812] and becoming fully entitled to all the advantages of Republican freedom. I thank… the good people of Frederick for the gratifying sentiments you have been pleased so kindly to express and for your honorable and affectionate welcome. I rejoice with you on the great improvements in this city and county and beg you all to accept my most grateful respect and patriotic wishes.”

Local historian Jake Wynn wrote the following for the Visit Frederick website:

“The significance of Lafayette's visit to Frederick extended beyond the ceremonial. It served as a reminder of the international bonds that had been crucial to America's birth. Lafayette's journey through the United States, with Frederick being a key stop, underscored the enduring friendships that had been formed in the crucible of war. It also highlighted the role of communities like Frederick in the broader narrative of American independence and identity.”

​​On that departure from town on the morning of December 31st, 1824, Lafayette passed a swath of farmland immediately south of town that would become our cemetery thirty years later. Not to mention the parcel fronting the Old Georgetown Pike would become the final resting place of another patriotic individual of renowned celebrity, Francis Scott Key, the man who wrote that patriotic song sung by William C. Russell at the fabulous dinner at Talbott’s Tavern on December 28th (1824). Mount Olivet Cemetery is home to many of the leading citizens that planned the general's visit, and countless townspeople who met Lafayette and participated in the grand revelry. May they all  rest in peace here in Frederick’s Second City.

Lafayette would not depart the country for his home back in France until September of 1825. Interestingly, there must have been a local couple by the name of Norris who especially got caught up in the whimsey of the "Nation's Guest" and his glorious tour. You see I found a decedent in Mount Olivet's Area H, Lot 381 who was born in 1826, within nine months of the end of Lafayette's tour of the states.  Ladies and gentlemen, meet Lafayette Norris!

Through census and obituary records, I learned that Lafayette Norris was a plasterer by trade. Talk about French connections, this is somewhat ironic, since the quarries of France's Montmartre have provided a fine grade of gypsum for coating walls in the form of Plaster of Paris. Secondly, I would also find the following entry in Jacob Engelbrecht's diary which proves that Lafayette Norris embodied the Revolutionary Spirit of 1776 and possibly the French Revolution as well!

"The Independent & Junior Hose companies had a Battle Royale on Saturday night August 14, 1858 -when brick bats & stones were thrown. Lafayette Norris, George Lambert, Luther A. Nickel & several others were injured - a row after a false alarm of fire."
-Jacob Engelbrecht (August 16, 1858)

"Vive la France"......."Vive la Lafayette!"

"Twas the week before Christmas, when all thro' the cemetery,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a ________________."

Although the possibilities are limitless, the necessity to have a word that rhymes with cemetery is a tough task. The best I can do is "hereditary," an appropriate term that connects with graveyard genre, but one too many syllables and makes no sense at all when inserted in my bastardization of Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 holiday masterpiece "A Visit from St. Nicholas." To be grammatically correct, the noun version "heredity" should be used, but now we don't have a proper rhyme with cemetery. I will now quit while I'm ahead.

It only feels fitting to write a Christmas-themed "Story in Stone" this week, but I think I better leave the true message of the season in the hands of a capable writer of the 19th century. In this case, I wanted someone more local than Clement Clarke Moore, Charles Dickens or Washington Irving. I soon found my author in Mr. Charles E. Knauff, editor of the Frederick Examiner newspaper. The edition of December 25th, 1872 contains a powerful message, and I was taken by the following passage:

"Cheering is the assurance that we can celebrate Christmas Day as an epoch in the history of our deliverance from the fear of the future."

I just love this assessment, not only as an historian, but the message holds true today just as much as it did back then 152 years ago. The author laments the fact that Christmases of the time (1872) were not "as interesting as the olde-fashioned ones were," however he states that young people will look back longingly and lovingly at these modern Christmases (ie. 1872) when in their own later years as they reminisce and reflect back and compare. Mr. Knauff's full editorial can be found below:

Charles E. Knauff had a great deal of olde-time Christmases under his belt as he was 45 years-old in late 1872. The newspaper veteran was born on April 20th, 1827, and earned distinction for his long career as a printer, reporter and editor in Frederick. He had been affiliated with his former boss, Charles H. Keefer, and The Examiner for quite some time, and soon became a partner and co-publisher of the local paper. As a matter of fact, I was surprised to see the Keefers and Knauffs as next door neighbors in the 1870 census. However, this makes complete sense as they lived at the business site located at the Examiner Building on the southwest corner of Market and Church streets. Many know this location today as the home of the Orchard Restaurant.

Back in 2018, I wrote a "Story in Stone" about a terrible train accident at Point of Rocks which took the life of several leading Fredericktonians. Among them was Charles H. Keefer of The Examiner. Charles E. Knauff was responsible for reporting on the tragic incident for the newspaper he shared in managing with Keefer. In essence, Knauff had to detail the death of his mentor and friend who is today buried in Mount Olivet's Area R/Lot 116. 

I tried finding biographical information on Mr. Knauff, but the best I could muster was what I would see in two obituaries in early April, 1915. He died on April 5th, and the two newspapers of record at that time, the Frederick News and Frederick Citizen paid homage to this man who never missed a day of work during a career that spanned over six decades.

Our cemetery records show that Mr. Knauff was buried on April 7th, 1915 alongside his wife (Anna Bragonier) in the grave plot of his parents, Jacob Knauff (1788-1867), a War of 1812 veteran, and wife Deborah (Philips) Knauff. Interestingly, Charles E. Knauff would die on the very day of the 15th anniversary of his wife's death. Both Charles and Anna rest in unmarked graves in Area A/Lot 77.

In that same Examiner Christmas issue of 1872, holiday advertising can be found in many columns adjacent Mr. Knauff's thoughtful editorial. Two such ads that caught my eye were "barking" for the local businesses of A. R. Ruse and A. C. McCardell. I was familiar with the latter gentleman, but did not know Mr. Ruse. I would soon learn his full name of Addison R. Ruse, proprietor of  Ruse's Novelty Emporium on North Market Street.

This was certainly one of the leading toy stores of town at the time, and a  place where holiday shopping could be done for the entire family. This was Frederick's Wal-Mart if you will, but it was not quite the pinnacle. No that was David Smith's Temple of Fancy, billed as Santa Claus' Frederick headquarters. 

Addison Rufus Ruse was born July 30th, 1849 and lived to October 11th, 1927. He was married to Martha J. Kussmaul of the family that would eventually produce an educator whose name would grace Frederick Community College's spacious theater.

Apparently, Addison Ruse worked in the newspaper business like Charles E. Knauff. The two gentlemen are also buried a short distance away from one another in Mount Olivet's Area A. Ruse grew up near the South Market Street bridge over Carroll Creek, and his stationary and music store, the location I presume mentioned in the 1872 advertisement at 54 North Market very near Frederick's City Hall (which is Brewer's Alley Restaurant today).

​His newspaper career with the Frederick Times was a short one in the mid 1880s and prompted him to leave Frederick for Baltimore because of an expense, not an opportunity. I learned this from a letter to the editor written a week after after his obituaries appeared in mid-October, 1927. Speaking of obituaries, I include two below, one from our Frederick paper, and another from The Baltimore Sun.

Another merchant of note included in that 1872 Frederick newspaper was A.C. McCardell, proprietor of a local confectionary, a shop that sells candy. I was familiar with this man and even possess a few items in my personal collection including a Victorian advertising card and a signed billhead from his business. 

​

I have always been intrigued by two things in connection to the above billhead. First, that Mr. McCardell billed himself and business as a "fruiterer," a word that I haven't seen used anywhere else. Second, I found it ironic that the store that sold the healthiest food in town (fruit), also manufactured the unhealthiest food in town. I guess you could call it a bittersweet business with a diverse portfolio.

In my research on this particular gentleman, I found myself feeling like "a kid in a candy store," both literally and figuratively. There are extensive writings on Adrian Coelfrid McCardell (1845-1932) and his business endeavors to be found. One of those endeavors includes my employer, as he served as Mount Olivet Cemetery's fifth president of our board of directors from 1919 until his death in 1932.

In conducting research, I was once again aided tremendously by T.J.C. Williams and his History of Frederick County, published in 1910. In Volume II of that work, one can read a lengthy biography on our subject, and see his photograph as well. Both are featured below:

McCardell's candy store evolved into a restaurant that was well-known for its decadent desserts (also apparently spelled as "deserts" in the above right photo, just as another connection to our story title regarding deserts and oases). McCardell's had quite a run here in town as a home-grown business.

Adrian C. McCardell passed away on March 30th, 1932 at the age of 86. Apparently being around all those sweets for the balance of his life had little to no effect on his longevity. He would be buried in Mount Olivet's Area R/Lot 17. His wife, Alforetta is here as well, dying in 1923. A daughter, Ruth Pauline, would be buried here in 1965.

Well its time for me to wrap up this "Story in Stone" so I can wrap up some presents. I will end with one more tidbit from that Frederick Examiner newspaper from Christmas Day, 1872. The article deals with an element of fashion that Adrian C. McCardell's granddaughter helped "bury" forever with her own sportswear designs. Our holiday incident involved a young man named David Otho Thomas.

For those not familiar with this antique clothing accessory, a bustle is a padded undergarment or wire frame used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses. The fashion was popular in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. Heavy fabric tended to pull the back of a skirt down and flatten it. As a result a woman's petticoated skirt would lose its shape during everyday wear (from merely sitting down or moving about).

I could not find a follow-up story to this specific incident in later editions of the paper. I'd like to believe that the pretty-young lady was one Marie Virginia Quynn (1852-1927). She was a daughter of Allen G. Quynn of early Frederick hardware lore. Like Cinderella missing her glass slipper, perhaps Miss Quynn read the Frederick Examiner article above and dared stepping into the Thomas snuff shop in order to retrieve her bustle, and thus her destiny. 

Born June 18, 1849 in Buckeystown, Mr. Thomas came from a well-known local family as well. He worked as a pharmacy clerk before getting into the tobacco business with his shop located on the northwest quadrant of the Square Corner (Market and Patrick streets) just west of Frederick County National Bank on West Patrick. Photographs exist of this location in a later incarnation as Flemings Tobacco Shop. The 1870 census shows David O. Thomas living at the City Hotel just down the street. 

One way or another, David Otho Thomas married the abovementioned Miss Quynn in October of 1873, just ten months later. Could it have been the same pretty, young lady who lost her bustle? We may never know. However, we can only imagine the bustle and train employed by the young bride on her wedding day, perhaps using the very one dropped on the street just before Christmas, 1872. If by design, more interesting bait has rarely been used by young ladies seeking matrimony. Again, I'm just wishful speculating here. 

By 1880, David O. Thomas was working as a dealer of hay and straw, more things that burn I guess. He was living with his bride and widowed mother in Frederick City.

Interestingly enough, our subject died on New Years Day, 1926 after what seems to have been a good life. He and Maria never had any children, but he finished his days working as a hardware salesman at Quynn's on East Patrick Street. His obituary proves that he had quite a business career, you could even say it was "bustling."

David and Maria Thomas are buried in a plot adjacent Mount Olivet's "Pumphouse Hill" in Area Q/Lot 18. Maria died the following year after her husband and is buried in this plot along with David's mother. 

I'd just like to leave you with two separate, yet poignant, quotes from a pair of 19th century wordsmiths that still hold true today:

"Were the views of those who are cheerless and despondent adopted and time regarded as a desert, still it would have its oases. Holidays are the oases of the year; some of them are so enchanting that upon their recurrence we allow ourselves to forget all else save the memories they commemorate. In their enjoyment outside cares vanish; we do not so much as throw a glance forward towards the always important tomorrow, but revel in the delights that the present affords.Years pass and generations die with them, but such principles endure and are transmitted from father to son."
           -Charles E. Knauff 

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!" 
           -Clement Clarke Moore

​ATTENTION LOCAL HISTORY FANS!!!

​"The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again."
​-Charles Dickens
(a quote from Nicholas Nickleby)

For most of these “Stories in Stone,” I am seldom fortunate enough to come across a portrait, or photograph, of subjects who died in the 1700s and 1800s. Sometimes, a family member, or long lost descendant, will send me an image after discovering my story online. I’m always excited about inserting these into the previously published works that live in perpetuity on the MountOlivetHistory.com website you find yourself on now as you read this. Regardless, it’s always more satisfying to research and write with an image of my subject staring back at me. Usually, I have to use a gravestone as the only surviving "image" of a decedent. I guess you could say that it’s great to put a face with a name when that name appears on a gravestone within Mount Olivet.

This week, I have a firm sense of my subject’s face as this was my introduction point, not knowing anything more about him, or seeing his gravesite in Mount Olivet. My interest stems solely from seeing his picture, and in said photo he is not doing anything particularly interesting or noteworthy. I must admit that, if anything, he looks somewhat peculiar in my opinion, and gives off vibes of being a stern, “no-nonsense” kind of guy. I don’t know if that assessment is anywhere near the truth, but you can judge for yourself the possible temperament of Mr. George Beckenbaugh.

​My second thought, upon seeing George Beckenbaugh’s face for the first time, was that he seemed to belong in a Charles Dickens novel. The great English writer lived from 1812-1870, while our subject, Mr. Beckenbaugh, lived pretty much the same time period being born a decade prior in 1801 and dying eight years after the man who published A Christmas Carol in 1843. I’m sure our Mr. Beckenbaugh was quite familiar with the greatest novelist of the Victorian era, and I would find through my research that he was certainly no Ebenezer Scrooge as he seemed to embrace happiness throughout his life.

George Beckenbaugh was born on the 5th of December 1801 in the sleepy hamlet of Creagerstown in northern Frederick County. Residents take pride in the fact that they are “four miles from everywhere.” Now Creagerstown wasn’t always “sleepy,” as it was at one time a bustling crossroads during the American Revolution period. As a matter of fact, its founder, John Creager, was also the man who gave us Mechanicstown which later changed its name to Thurmont. Creager was a son of Lorentz Krieger, one of the early German immigrants to our county and an early leader in the Moravian Church in Graceham.

​George was the son of Jacob & Eve Catherine (Zimmerman) Beckenbaugh. His father was a store owner in Creagerstown. George was raised in Creagerstown, and eventually married Martha Vaines (Ligget) Beckenbaugh and was father to six children: Isabella Catharine, Jane Elizabeth, George William, James Jacob, John Michael, and Thomas Ligget Beckenbaugh.

Our photogenic subject owned a 19-acre lot adjacent town and operated stores in Creagerstown and a hotel which he would turn over to his brother Michael at some point in the 1840s. Michael appears as “M. Beckenbaugh” on Isaac Bond's Map of Frederick County, published in 1858. 

​George would move to Frederick in the early 1840s and eventually operate the Temperance Hotel here. This was the site of the former Bartgis' Hotel, located on the corner of West Church Street and Court Street. Beckenbaugh began leasing the establishment in 1855 which would later be bought by John Stemmel, who made extensive repairs and re-opened his endeavor as the Central Hotel. Upon this event, the local newspaper commented that Beckenbaugh’s former hostelry “has recently been thoroughly repaired and for the beauty and convenience cannot be surpassed by any public house in Frederick.  Being located near the courthouse, persons having business to transact will find this most convenient.”
-Frederick Examiner January 10th, 1855

As if I wasn’t lucky enough to have a photo of George Beckenbaugh, an online search soon presented me with a letter written by Mr. Beckenbaugh, himself, to other family members in 1867. At the time Beckenbaugh was widowed, had left Frederick County and was living in Baltimore. On this occasion, he took the time to share his genealogy and own life story with his children.
​
The following communication is copied from pages 69-79 of Edwin T. and Atha (Peckenpaugh) Brace's book entitled Peckinpaughs, Pickenpaughs, Beckenbaughs, Peckipahs, and Peckenpaughs: Descendants of Johann Adam and Anna Maria Beckenbach. The letter was written by George Beckinbaugh in Baltimore on November 23rd, 1867 and reads as follows:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

To my dearly beloved Children,
​
    Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of my beloved Father, it having occurred on the night of the 23rd Nov 1817.

     I believe not a single anniversary of that heart-rending occasion has since come around in the cycle of time, that the scene around his dying bed has not been vividly brought to my mind, to me, the eldest of seven children (then living) and not quite sixteen years of age, it was overwhelming.  Never shall I forget it whilst memory endures, and had it not been for the bright evidences he gave in his dying hour, of a blissful immortality beyond the grave, I know not how I could have been reconciled.

     The recollection of his many virtues, and the high character which he left as an enduring legacy to his children, has been to me, throughout my whole life one of the sweetest recollections, that cluster around the memory of my idolized Father.

     I have thought this a fit occasion, to put you in possession of some of the particulars, of the History of my father's and my mother's families, of which I am not aware that you have any knowledge, I do this, that when I am gathered to my fathers, you say not be ignorant of your ancestry.

     From information derived from reliable sources I have learned that my Grandfather Beckenbaugh (whose Christian name was George Leonard) and two brothers, emigrated to this country from Germany, before the war of the Revolution, my Grandfather and one brother, whose name was Caspar, settled in the Middletown Valley, Frederick County, Md., they were farmers. One of the brothers whose name I do not know, I was informed by one of my aunts, kept the Ferry at Shepherdstown, and upon one occasion after having taken over the river some person or persons was drowned upon his return to shore, the river being high at the time.  My Grandfather and his brother Casper are buried in the German Reformed grave yard in Middletown.  I found some years ago in searching in this grave yard for the grave of my Grandfather, this inscription upon a grave stone, "In Memory of Caspar Beckenbaugh, Born July 10th 1722.  Died January 18th 1790", at the time, I thought it might be my Grandfather's, but upon inquiry, I learned that his Christian name was George Leonard.

​     The foregoing embraces the main facts in the History of my parents and their families, as well as of myself, your own recollections after our removal to Frederick City, to the present time, makes it unnecessary for me to go into further detail of many things, that might otherwise be interesting to you, during this period of time (as you know) we have had many joys, and many sorrows, but the most grievous sorrow of all, was the death of your beloved mother, yet when we recur to it, (as I hope we often do) how sweet is the consolation to know, that she died fully sensible that the time of her departure had come, and in the confident hope of a blissful immortality.  She has gone to Heaven, where I trust we shall again meet her.  The recollection of her happy and triumphant death, and of her love and devotedness to me, and our dear children, are consolations that cluster around her memory which you, nor I, never, no never can forget.

     God grant that when our departure comes, we too, may leave behind, the same consolation to our loved ones, is the sincere and fervent prayer of your fond and affectionate father.

                                                                                                              Geo. Beckenbaugh
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 
What a great documentation to have, one I wish I myself had from one of my own ancestors. We all could hope for a Jacob Engelbrecht in our past, but this was a holiday gift indeed featuring a great autobiographical effort by Mr. B. including his feelings towards his grandparents, parents, siblings and most importantly, wife. Speaking of which, Martha died on January 17th, 1862 in the midst of the American Civil War. I presume she was buried in Baltimore. 

George would continue his work in "Charm City" and can be found here within the 1870 census. I wish the letter was written a decade later as to provide me with more details of his last years of life. He would die on April 14th, 1878 at the age of 77 and had a funeral service in Baltimore. He was buried in Mount Olivet three days later in a lot found in Area F/Lot 69.

George Beckenbaugh, unlike Dicken’s Ebenezer Scrooge, would not find a neglected tombstone bearing his name if he was to visit today. In 2025, it will be cleaned by our "Stoners" crew and it already appears to have been repaired in the past. 

​Two of George’s other children are buried here in the family plot in Area F. These include Dr. Thomas L. Beckenbaugh (1840-1881) and daughter Isabella Catharine (Beckenbaugh) Lynch (1829-1901). Isabella’s husband, Judge John Alexander Lynch (1825-1904), was Judge of Circuit Court for Frederick and Montgomery Counties for thirty years. He was also a leading member of Frederick’s Columbia Masonic Lodge, but broke away to start a rival chapter of the fraternal organization. The Lynch Lodge No. 163 A.F. & A.M. was chartered in 1873 and formed not because of a desire to have a lodge closer to home but because the Masons were in danger of violating one of the two taboo subjects that aren’t discussed in a lodge—politics and religion. These subjects tend to create hard feelings between people and the Masons are about brotherhood.
 
Although the Civil War had ended in 1865, differences still existed between those who supported the Union and those who supported the Confederacy. The two lodges remained separate until 1994 when they merged back into the Columbia Lodge. This organization is still active today as Lynch Lodge No. 163 A.F. & A.M. Note that both of Isabella's brothers were Masons as well based on the carved symbol  of the compass, a carpenter's square and a capital "G" with the latter thought to represent either geometry or a Christian God.

A few hundred yards away from the Backenbaugh family plot is the grave of William Luther Wesley Seabrook (1833-1916), George Beckenbaugh's nephew (son of his sister Mary Catharine (Beckenbaugh) Seabrook (1807-1893). You may recall this gentleman from a Story in Stone written last year entitled "A Newspaper Sentinel," and better yet, if you journeyed with me in October 2024 for my "Unsettling Candlelight Walking Tour." This former Creagerstown resident had a fine newspaper career and was a friend of Abraham Lincoln. He helped raise his grandson William "Willie" Seabrook (1884-1945), who introduced us to the concept of zombies with his 1929 book The Magic Island. 

​One more Beckenbaugh connection of note features George and Martha’s son Dr. John Michael Beckenbaugh (1838-1873). This gentleman spent much of his life in Sharpsburg, and is buried in Shepherdstown’s Elmwood Cemetery. His wife was Nancy “Nannie” Cowan Douglas Beckenbaugh, a daughter of Rev. Robert Douglas. Nannie grew up in a house overlooking the Potomac River on the Maryland side of the river opposite Shepherdstown. This is the 700-acre Ferry Hill Plantation, the former park headquarters site for the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. The house and Douglas family go back to the Blackford and Swearingen families that originally operated a ferry that carried travelers over the Potomac. You may have heard of Nannie Beckenbaugh’s brother, Henry Kyd Douglas.

​Henry Kyd Douglas was a Confederate staff officer during the American Civil War. Capt. Henty Kyd Douglas participated in most of the battles of the Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia and served on the staffs of Stonewall Jackson and his successors. Severely wounded on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg, Douglas became a prisoner of war for almost ten months. At the end of the war, he commanded a brigade at the last battle of the war.

​After the war Douglas returned to his civilian occupation as a lawyer, got involved in state politics, and became an officer in the Maryland National Guard, eventually holding the appointment as Adjutant General. Today, Henry Kyd Douglas is foremost known for his wartime memoir, “I Rode with Stonewall,” first published in 1940. I wonder if he was influenced in any way to put pen to paper by his sister’s father-in-law George Beckenbaugh?

​Captain Douglas was quite familiar with Frederick and visited here during the war. Of key significance was his time spent in the company of Gen. Stonewall Jackson in September 1862. In his memoirs he tells the story of attending a church service with Jackson at the German Reformed Church in which Rev. Daniel Zacharias offered up prayers for Abraham Lincoln and the Union soldiers during his sermon. Jackson apparently slept through this, but heartily congratulated the minister afterwards on delivering a most thoughtful sermon.

​Henry Kyd Douglas also was a staunch critic of the Barbara Fritchie poem as told by Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Douglas claimed that he was at Jackson’s side throughout the general’s famous exit of town on September 10th, 1862. Douglas always maintained that the pair bypassed the grand Dame’s house, and did not have an altercation with her as was purported.

​Dr. John Michael Beckenbaugh’s son, Capt. John Kyd Beckenbaugh (1874-1940), was responsible for getting his uncle’s colorful memoirs published as the book "I Rode With Stonewall,” after a challenging period of 35 years. Captain John, George Beckenbaugh’s grandson, would die later the same year and he, his mother and "Rebel" Uncle Henry are residing in Shepherdstown’s Elmwood Cemetery.

​What a wonderful photograph we have of George Beckenbaugh, and other family members to boot thanks to them being shared by descendants and genealogists on FindaGrave.com. Like George Bailey, it appears that our subject (George Beckenbaugh) had a wonderful life as well, despite the stern look in his image. Come to think of it, most all those early photographs have uncomfortable looking subjects because photographers told them to hold still for an awkward amount of time while snapping the photo.  Perhaps that’s how the tradition of saying “Cheese” came about?

Happy Holidays!

Having nothing at all to do with the distinguished looking gentleman above, I'd like to talk about my pet for starters. We will get to the Col. Sanders-looking guy above in a minute.

​So, it has been a week of freedom, unbridled joy and relief for my cat Bilbo. Last Sunday, I removed the e-collar he's been wearing since late summer. The "cone of shame" was necessary to keep said feline from reopening a wound on his front right paw. After significant healing in August, the collar was removed, but after being left alone for just two hours, this docile, and intelligent, cat completely undid weeks of self-repair on that paw wound. Back went on the cone after just a two-hour respite.

​Bilbo went about his business with the translucent headpiece. One month later, he was given a second chance for e-collar removal. This time, gauze was put over the wound area (devoid of fur) in hopes that it would deter Bilbo from reopening the wound again. Stupid move on the human's part, as he easily chewed through the gauze and re-attacked the scabbed over trouble spot.

Now the cone would be left on Bilbo for nearly the entire month of October. It became so commonplace that I began referring to my 4-legged housemate as "Coney," instead of his preferred Lord of the Rings inspired name (Bilbo Baggins) that came with him when adopted from the Frederick County Humane Society over a decade ago.

Now I know Bilbo is simply an animal and its hard to change those survival instincts within. It was a sad situation, but he seemed to accept his fate and the cone didn't seem to be slowing him down from a daily regimen of sleeping, eating and occasionally scratching things. My plan included removing the e-collar by month's end after a scheduled vet check-up in late October and consultation on a potential strategy to keep him from opening up the wound for a third time.

Amazingly, just days before the visit, I came home to find Bil on a back porch couch cushion with blood smeared all over himself and said cushion. He now possessed a mysterious, oozing wound on his chest area. Thankfully, he didn't seem to be in pain, however the situation was quite perplexing, having me wonder how in the world he could have reached this area with the cone affixed?

A trip to the pet emergency hospital directly afterwards revealed that Bilbo had suffered a ruptured abscess, one that had gone unnoticed beforehand obviously. The subsequent burst left a heck of a mess, leaving Bil in a precarious situation of not being able to care for himself because of the cumbersome cone not allowing him to reach anything as he would have lapped up the fluid as cats are self-cleaning professionals.

The hospital vet theorized that Bilbo had likely been in a recent scrap with another cat, or woodland creature, as he sometimes leaves the yard temporarily by hopping my six-foot privacy fence. He comes back with no problem, however this practice has been limited of late thanks to having an obnoxious cone on his head. The vet cleaned Bilbo up and pointed out the puncture marks, but with all rabies shots current, there was no fear of complications and a prognosis of full recovery after cleaning and sterilizing the wound. I, of course, felt guilty knowing that the cone had inhibited the poor guy's ability to defend himself against his mystery yard opponent.

Anyway, although his right paw was looking great, this new setback would dictate at least three more weeks "under the cone." 

Well here we are nearly a month later. The cone was officially removed last weekend, and Bilbo was heavily surveilled for the first two days. Slowly, I left him unsupervised, and he did not disappoint. He had plenty of "laundry" to attend to (licking himself), and this chore kept him occupied for that pivotal first 48 hours without the e-collar in place.

I did have two major hairballs to attend to on my carpet Monday night, but I didn't care as Bil's wound areas remained unscathed. And they have continued to stay that way throughout all last week. Best of all, Bilbo seems so very relieved not to have something either hanging over his head, and more so, hanging around his neck. 

While out walking the grounds of our lovely garden cemetery earlier this week, I took special notice of a fitting moniker on an old marble stone. This was solely based on my personal happenings at home that I just recounted. I was in Area E, on the side of a hill offering a scenic view of Loats baseball field with Costco in the distance. As I looked the opposite direction towards Catoctin Mountain, I saw the word "cone" carved upon the face of a marble gravestone. It was that of  Spencer Cone Jones.

Who the heck is this guy! I was not familiar with this gentleman at all, but would soon learn that he was quite well known to many during his lifetime, as was his father who is buried just steps away. This "Cone" was a lawyer and former politician of the late 19th century , and received much of his early education in Frederick. He would gain greater acclaim for being a public servant representing his native Montgomery County. A two-time mayor of Rockville, Spencer Cone Jones was a Civil War veteran who would also gain election to serve as a leading member of Maryland's General Assembly. 

​My research on this fellow was pretty easy as I was aided by finding a biography from Bernard C. Steiner's "Men of Mark in Maryland: Biographies of Leading Men in the State" published by Johnson-Wynne Co., Washington DC in 1907. Here is what Mr. Steiner, also buried in our cemetery and longtime librarian of Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Library, had to say about my subject:

​"Spencer Cone Jones, banker and lawyer, was born at Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland, July 3, 1836, the son of Reverend Joseph H. Jones, a Baptist clergyman, and Elizabeth (Clagett) Jones. He was educated at the Rockville Academy, at the Frederick public schools and at Frederick College, the old county academy. He then read law with William J. Ross of Frederick and was admitted to the bar of Frederick County."

​Spencer C. Jones began to practice law here in town, but the Civil War interrupted  his plans. A Confederate sympathizer, he enlisted in Company D of the First Maryland Cavalry as was stated by Steiner. From our database, I learned that Spencer was arrested by Federal troops at Maryland Heights on May 26th, 1862 and charged with treasonable conspiracy. He was imprisoned for eight months, being held at various periods in the city jail at Baltimore, Fort McHenry, and Fort Delaware. 

When he was first arrested, he was listed as prisoner of war in Baltimore City Jail. Jones was subsequently transferred back and forth between Fort McHenry and Fort Delaware for interrogation. During this period, he was listed at various times as either a prisoner of war or a political prisoner. This interested me greatly because I had two GGG grandfathers who served as prison guards for the Union Army at Fort Delaware, and my GGG grandmother was a laundress and cook there.

Spencer Cone Jones  was released from Fort McHenry on December 16th, 1862. He enlisted into the Rebel forces again at Harrisonburg, VA on May 1st, 1863, but was captured on July 4th, 1863 at Monterey Pass, PA just after the Battle of Gettysburg. A document on Fold3 reports that Jones' horse was killed underneath him in battle here. He was imprisoned for a few more months in Baltimore, but was exchanged in a prisoner swap.  In February of 1864, he was charged in the Frederick County Circuit Court for levying war, and in 1865 was disbarred from the Frederick County Bar. Apparently, he served out the remainder of the Civil War in Virginia and was present at the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in April, 1865.  The state dropped all charges on Mr. Jones in March 1866. 

After the war, Spencer Cone Jones taught school near Huntsville, Texas, not returning to Maryland until after the adoption of the state constitution of 1867. He remained vocal and influential among former Southern sympathizers, speaking at meetings of war veterans, including the dedication of a memorial to the Confederate dead in Winchester, VA.

Speaking of Confederate monuments, Spencer Cone Jones had a hand, or other body part, in the Rockville Confederate Monument that was removed from Rockville Court Square a few years back. The statue was unveiled and dedicated on June 3rd, 1913. This date was Jefferson Davis’ birthday and 50 years after the Battle of Gettysburg, a time when reconciliation and ceremonies were important to surviving veterans on both sides of the Civil War.

Judge Edward C. Peter and Rockville Mayor Lee Offutt made keynote speeches at the dedication. It has been suggested, but not documented, that the soldier’s head was modeled after Spencer Cone Jones, father-in-law of an official in the foundry that cast the statue. 

​Let's return back to Bernard Steiner's narrative on Mr. Jones:

"On December 21, 1871, he was married to Ellen, daughter of John and Elizabeth S. Brewer. Mrs. Jones died on July 21, 1876, leaving one daughter, Elizabeth, who is married to Thomas R. Falvy of New Orleans. In Rockville, Mr. Jones soon built up a large practice and in 1871 he was elected on the Democratic ticket to the office of state's attorney for Montgomery County. In 1875 he was re-elected and, in 1879, he was elected clerk of the State Court of Appeals. A second term in this position was given him by the vote of the people of the State in 1885 and, in 1892, he was chosen by the legislature as state treasurer. To this position he was reelected in 1894 and was renominated in 1896, but failed of election, as there was a Republican majority in the General Assembly. Mr. Jones was twice elected mayor of Rockville, in 1898 and 1900. He resigned this office, on being elected a member of the state senate in 1901." 

​"He affiliates with the Baptist church, and is a Mason and Knight of Pythias, in both of which societies he has occupied the higher offices. Mr. Jones is vice-president of the Board of Visitors of the State School for the Deaf at Frederick."

I wanted to learn a little more about Mr. Jones' time in the Maryland Senate and found the following passage in the Maryland Archives as it  appears the Maryland State House Annex building was his idea.

"Jones took a leadership role in the construction of the State House Annex at the beginning of the twentieth century. As a state senator, Jones served on the Executive Committee of the State House Building Commission. On the Building Commission, he frequently participated in meetings regarding the funding and contracts for the State House refurbishment and construction of the State House Annex. In August 1902, the Baltimore Sun reported that the idea for the Annex was Jones' and that he submitted the appropriations bill to fund the restoration and construction. Jones' original bill requested $400,000, but at the request of the Governor and Treasury officials, he changed his request to $250,000, with the understanding that any additional money would be provided during the next legislative session."​

​"Jones was elected President of the State Senate on January 4, 1904, and gave a speech that emphasized the importance of completing construction on the State House:

'So with the sunshine of prosperity, honor and usefulness upon us should we hesitate to make this house a beautiful, lasting and appropriate expression of our gratitude for, and pride in, the achievements of our people? It is with sadness that we are compelled by the necessities of the situation to vacate the old Senate Chamber, memorable in the history of the State, and in which cluster associations which strike a tender chord in the heart of every true Marylander. Let us have it restored as near as, possible to its original condition and sacredly preserve it as the holiest of all in this temple of our liberties.' (Archives of Maryland, Vol. 401, pp. 10)

​A major focus of Jones' speech was that the Legislature should provide the necessary funding to complete the work on the State House and that such work must maintain the original character of the building."

​Even despite some alleged "funny business" during the election, Jones' term in the Senate ended with his defeat in a primary by Blair Lee in 1905.

​Spencer Cone Jones lived the bulk of his adult life as a widower. His wife, Ellen, had died back in July 1876 and was laid to rest in Rockville Baptist Church Cemetery. Spencer continued to live in Rockville afterwards, and can be found on the northwest corner of Washington and Jefferson streets in the 1910 census with his profession listed as president of the Montgomery County National Bank. The property would eventually be sold to the Baptist Church of Rockville.

​He would regularly leave Maryland to spend winters living with his daughter Elizabeth, and her husband, Thomas R. Falvy, in New Orleans. This is where Spencer Cone Jones would die on April 1st, 1915. His body would be sent to Frederick for burial in the family plot in Mount Olivet in Area E/Lot 48 next to his wife and parents. She had been re-interred to Mount Olivet in May, 1888.

Spencer's daughter and son-in-law (the Falvys) would be interred Mount Olivet upon their deaths within the family plot originally purchased at the time of Spencer's mother's death in the 1860s.

​Just a parting word on Spencer's father, Rev. Joseph Hawkins Jones, born December 3rd, 1798 in Fairfax VA. He was the son of Charles Jones of Ireland (immigrated to the US in 1793) and Prudence Hawkins of Providence, Rhode Island. Joseph Hawkins Jones was ordained a minister in the Baptist Church in 1820 and served in Rockville.  Both are buried directly behind Spencer.

Rev. Jones married Elizabeth Clagett of Montgomery County in 1821 and had at least five known children in addition to Spencer (who was the youngest). All are buried with him and his wife in the family plot in Area E/Lot 48: Ann Elizabeth Jones (1825-1888), Susan Prudence (1827-1828), John Hawkins Jones (1829-1830), another John Hawkins Jones (1831-1833), and a second Susan Prudence (1833-1834) The four children who never reached maturity were moved here in 1907 from their original burial place in Rockville.

I learned more about Rev. Jones' career and death from the following information compiled from the archival minutes of Barnesville Baptist Church (Barnesville, MD):

"In 1845, after 24 years of service Mr. Jones resigned his pastorate of Rockville Baptist Church and moved to Frederick, Maryland. While living there, he preached at Barnesville in school houses &c, and after the close of the Civil War, a church was organized at that place and regularly supplied by him, and a meeting house was built under his auspices. Much of this time he was actively engaged in missionary work in Frederick County distributing Bibles among the destitute and needy and preaching at other regular appointments.

In 1864 his wife, who had been a help-mate in all his labors of love for more than 40 years, departed this life. This severe trial, with a rather delicate state of health, induced him to spend his winters with his son-Judge Clagett Jones of King & Queen Co., Va. About 1871, the house of worship near Barnesville was erected as a monument to his faithful life work. Thence he was called home to his Father’s house on above, Dec. 31, 1871."

​"He was a man of strong faith and untiring energy. Where ever a sense of duty led, there he was bound to go and do his best. He was never known to fail in meeting his appointments, unless something beyond his control prevented. His was a remarkably kind heart, with a strong tenacity for what he conscientiously believed, and he candidly proclaimed his convictions of what was right. His preaching and conversations seemed more bent on instructing and comforting Christians than the converting of sinners. His style of preaching was similar to that of the venerable Jeremiah Moore—“well versed in scripture, often giving lucid explanations of different passages. Christian experience was with him a favorite theme. His life was an ornament to religion as a man, a Christian, a preacher, he was an honor to his Country, the Church, his family and himself. He was cheerful even when suffering and joyful during his last illness, his last words were 'Happy, happy, happy.' "

Rev. Joseph Hawkins Jones died in King and Queen County, VA on December 31st, 1871 at age 73, and would be buried in Mount Olivet four days later.

What's in a Name?
I had to go down another rabbit hole to see how Spencer Jones gained his "conical" name. It was a quick search that led me to a man named Spencer H. Cone. ​

​Spencer Houghton Cone was an American clergyman born April 13th, 1785 in Princeton, New Jersey. He entered Princeton University at the age of twelve, but two years later, because of his father’s illness, left his studies. At sixteen he was master in a school at Burlington, NJ and next moved to Philadelphia. Finding his salary insufficient to support his family, he first studied law, but abandoned it and turned to the stage. This vocation did not especially appeal to him, and was strongly opposed by his devout mother who considered it not respectable. He first appeared in "Mahomet" in 1805 and subsequently was successful on the stage. But this profession was distasteful to him and he soon left it.

​In 1812, Spencer H. Cone joined the Baltimore American newspaper as treasurer and bookkeeper. Soon afterward, in connection with his brother-in-law, John Norvell, he purchased and published the Baltimore Whig. During the War of 1812, he was at the Battle of Bladensburg with Norvell and the account of this experience has been chronicled in "Some Account of the Life of Spencer Houghton Cone, A Baptist Preacher in America," published in New York in 1856.
 
Cone then became a clerk in the treasury department in Washington. After moving there, he began to preach with remarkable success. He was converted to the Baptist Church in 1814. In 1815-1816 he became Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives. About 1823, Pastor Cone moved to the Oliver Street Church, New York, where he remained for eighteen years. He then became pastor of the 1st Baptist church there. In 1832, Spencer Cone became president of the Baptist triennial convention, and was re-elected until 1841. From 1837 till 1850, he was president of the American and Foreign Bible society. On the formation of the American Bible Union, Cone was made its president, and so continued until his death on August 28, 1855.
 
At the zenith of his career, he was probably the most popular and influential Baptist minister in the United States. It's no wonder that a man of profound faith such as Rev. Joseph Hawkins Jones would name his son after Rev. Cone. It is likely to assume, that he  (Rev. Jones) met/knew this man during his lifetime.

In closing, I find it fascinating that my subject had such a connection to the Baptist Church in name, family and spirit. The central tenet of the Baptist faith tradition "teaches that people are born again when they believe that Jesus died for their sin, and was buried, and rose again." 

As for my cat Bilbo, he too, must feel "Born again" in having his cone removed. At this moment, he seems to have found a grocery bag to hang out in. From the looks of him, he continues to seem "Happy, happy, happy!"

​This is the second part of a story which I began last week regarding ghosts frequenting Mount Olivet. While I have not personally seen any of the kind, that doesn’t rule out whether there have been visits, and/or if any said spirits still exist "in residence" along with their own mortal remains. I guess one could say when it comes to Mount Olivet, and the presence of apparitions of any of our cemetery residents, you have to look at "what can be, unburdened by what has been."
​
Our cemetery opened its gates to burials over 170 years ago, so it’s quite possible that we've had some unique visitors from the community's past frequent our property in the present. This will likely continue into the future as well. In the meantime, there is plenty of space for the supernatural to roam over a hundred acres which boasts over 41,000 interments.

In folklore, a ghost is the soul, or spirit, of a dead person that can appear to the living. Wikipedia describes ghosts as “varying from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike visions.”

According to Daniel Cohen’s Encyclopedia of Ghosts (1984):
​
“The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary, human-like essences, though stories of ghostly armies and the ghosts of animals rather than humans have also been recounted. They are believed to haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life.”

Back in March, 2018, I wrote one of these “Story in Stones” about a gentleman buried here in Mount Olivet who has been said to have been haunting a mansion located in the northern part of the county. This house, built in 1808, is named Auburn, and a former resident of that home, Edward McPherson (1827-1848) is buried in our Area E. Auburn was built by Baker Johnson, brother of Gov. Thomas Johnson, Jr. It is located on the west side of US 15 near Catoctin Furnace, a few miles south of Thurmont in northern Frederick County.

​Many residents of Auburn have reported that they heard the mysterious sounds of someone slowly climbing the back servants’ stairway of the 19-room, colonial home. These were relatives and descendants of the greater McPherson family (of which Edward belonged). Our subject died in 1848 in Mexico during a duel fought between two military officers engaged in the Mexican War.

​Anyway, "Sir Edward,” as the ghost has been called, has been frequenting Auburn, but who knows if he has ever haunted Mount Olivet. The word “haunting,” is a strong term defined as having a deeply disquieting or disturbing effect. It also can be defined as poignant and evocative; difficult to ignore or forget.
I’ve recently learned about a few other folks whose mortal remains reside in Mount Olivet, but have reportedly been hanging around their homestead just north of Walkersville. Their names are Henry R. Harris and wife Clarissa Harris.

​I first heard these Harris names, a popular one this year, when I had the good fortune to catch up with an old friend of mine named Ron Layman at the Great Frederick Fair a few months back. While there, Ron told me that he had been spending his retirement doing housework—literal house demolition and refurbishing in the process of rehabilitating a familiar historic home on the grounds of a popular Frederick County park. This happens to be the Heritage Manor House on the grounds of Walkersville Heritage Farm Park located at 9236 Devilbiss Bridge Road near the intersection with Glade Road and salubrious Glade Creek. The farmstead is seen as “a shining example of rural domestic agricultural architecture.”

​For the last five years, Ron Layman, a former Boy Scout leader, has been volunteering with others to bring back a magical farmhouse to its original glory. The location has been known by many names, and best known as the Harris Farm. The property dates back to the county’s beginning when it took its original name Hawthorne Bottom. The Cramer family of Germany are said to have constructed the first farm in the year 1746 (when we were still part of Prince Georges County). This led to the moniker of Hawthorne Farm.
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The main house and farmstead that exists today was built in 1855 by the forementioned Henry R. Harris. He owned the property, but the actual craftsman builder was one John W. Winebrenner, the founder of the Glade Church of God. The three-story, center plan house was constructed in predominantly late Greek Revival style, with some Italianate elements. The agricultural complex consists of a bank barn with an attached granary; a second frame barn that shares an animal yard with the bank barn; a row of frame outbuildings including a converted garage, a workshop, and a chicken house. There is also a drive-through double corn crib; and a frame pig pen from 1914.

​The 20th-century buildings consist of a frame poultry house, a dairy barn with milk house and two silos, and an octagonal chicken coop. An early lime kiln is located on the edge of the property with the entire complex preserved as part of the Walkersville Heritage Farm Park.

​The Harris Farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, decades after the last permanent occupants lived here. These were renters of the house and farmstead who vacated upon its sale in 1986. Apparently, Frederick County Government rented a room herein to a local Walkersville athletic association who used it for storage of athletic equipment and occasional meetings.
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Ron Layman has been associated with the building for five years now, coming almost weekly to provide his skills as a volunteer laborer. For many years, Ron served as head scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop #274 before retiring in 2017. He has continued to lead young men in scouting with this Harris Farm house project. Four years ago, Ron got the Boy Scouts of Troop 274, along with other Frederick County troops, involved in helping him with house repairs and renovation. As part of this agreement, two rejuvenated rooms have been used for Boy Scout district meetings, Eagle Badge boards, scout training programs, meetings of the Walkersville Boy Scout Troop, and a program called “Sunday’s for Santa”—an annual fundraiser.

​Made by the hands of Ron Layman, my lantern continues to serve as a true intermediary between both myself, and the potential ghosts of those buried here­ in our cemetery. Speaking of intermediaries, Ron told me that last year a local spiritualist/paranormalist was brought in to “feel the place out” after some evocative happenstances.
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The professional "ghostbuster" in question here was Rhonda Russo, who gave a riveting lecture to a large group of participants at the former Harris Farm home on October 26th, 2023. Ms. Russo next helped conduct an investigation, and found that the original housebuilders (Mr. and Mrs. Harris) were still “haunting” the house, in spirit of course. Ms. Russo shared that these first residents of the home were quite happy with the fine renovation work being done by Ron and the scouts. A better testimonial could not be given. However, I guess it can be a little intimidating and unnerving knowing that these humble remodelers are not alone, but instead are being supervised by Henry R. and wife Clarissa Harris who died in 1878 and 1901 respectively. By the way, both individuals died in the house.

​I was previously aware of this house by sight only, and up until recently had no idea that the original residents were buried within Mount Olivet. While I haven't been inside the farm house, I have spent many hours of my life sitting on the greater farmstead property while watching numerous baseball games played by my son Eddie. This period was when he played for Frederick Babe Ruth and Frederick American Legion’s baseball team in games versus some talented Glade Valley Babe Ruth teams, and Woodsboro Legion squads. Here, I sat and watched several "end of season" tournaments on the various ball diamonds positioned just a couple hundred yards away from the farmhouse which stands proudly at the entrance of the park.
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I have tried to find photos of Henry and Clarissa Harris to no avail, as I’d like to be able to recognize them if they happen to frequent their gravesite here in Mount Olivet’s historic section. According to Ron Layman, no one has had a clear look at them at the Harris farmhouse either, but at least we know they are “there in spirit,” and “alive and well,” at least, in the greater Walkersville area. I will also call out Heritage Frederick to be on the lookout as well, because I’ve learned they are the keepers of the Harris family bible. You never know when this couple may want to peruse it for old times sake!?

​So, let’s talk about Mr. and Mrs. Harris, whose impressive grave monument occupies two large family plots on an elevation in Mount Olivet’s Area R—not far from the grave of Gov. Thomas Johnson and Barbara Fritchie. 

​Henry and Clarissa Harris
Henry Ross Harris was born in Frederick County on September 6th, 1820. He was one of eight known children, and was the eldest son of Franklin Harris (1790-bef 1850) and wife Elizabeth Claybaugh (1796-1850). Henry appears to have received an education and studied law as I have seen him described as an esquire in newspaper mentions of the mid-19th century. He was also a state legislator and gentleman farmer exemplified by the fact that he owned this beautiful plantation now comprising Walkersville Heritage Park.

Henry married the former Clarissa Barrick on July 26th, 1843. Miss Barrick, born December 17th, 1821, was the daughter of Frederick Barrick and Catharina Cramer. It appears this property came down through Clarissa’s family as her father, Frederick Barrick, is identified as a son of Jacob Barrick and Rosanna Devilbiss, large property owners in the area. You may recognize the Barrick name in relation to nearby Woodsboro’s legacy of quarrying (Barrick Quarry), and of course, who can forget the water crossing that has made famous (or almost famous) the Devilbiss name—Devilbiss Bridge.

Henry Harris bought 120 acres of land (part of "Jacob's Lot Well Bounded") from John W. and Catharine Barrick and Margaret Barrick, widow of a man named George Barrick, in 1845. My assistant Marilyn Veek provided me with lineage charts and info, while explaining  that John W. Barrick was Clarissa’s first cousin, and that George and Margaret Barrick were her paternal uncle and aunt.
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I first found Henry and Clarissa Harris here at this property, and living within the manor house, in the 1850 US Census. They are joined by a daughter, Julia A. Harris, born October 26th, 1846.

​Subsequent census records were found, but not much info can be gleaned outside of Henry’s written occupation as a farmer. The interpretive panel outside the farmhouse states that Henry began as a local teacher at the Old Glade School House, located basically across the road from his home. I would find several vintage news advertisements (in the 1860s and 1870s) pertaining to Henry’s political aspirations and service in state government. There is also proof of his strong Union leanings during the American Civil War, and he conducted many auctions of nearby farms and estates.

​A National Register of Historic Places report by the Maryland Heritage Trust can easily be found online and provides information gleaned through existing histories, tax assessments and census records from the second half of the 19th century.

​Henry would not be enumerated in the 1880 census because he died two years earlier on November 24th, 1878. I checked that particular year to see when Thanksgiving was celebrated. I found it was November 28th, so I think we are safe from Henry not dying on Thanksgiving Day, thus being particularly “unsettled” on the holiday. I learned a great deal more about the man (Henry R. Harris) courtesy of his obituary which appeared in the December 12th, 1878 edition of Frederick’s Maryland Union newspaper. I had no idea that he was a captain!

​And to think, I could have titled this particular blog story "Death by newspaper." We pick back up by seeing Henry’s widow continuing to live at the property which appears in the 1873 Titus Atlas Map. The National Register of Historic Places report continues in talking about Clarissa cohabitating with an assortment of relatives and farmhands.

​Clarissa Harris passed away on April 19th, 1901. Her obituary would appear in the Frederick News the very next day.

​Mrs. Harris would join her husband in the gravesite in Mount Olivet. However, as we have seen, their spirits appear to have remained at the farmstead on Devilbiss Bridge Road. Daughter Julia Amanda Liggett took over ownership of the property, however her time as the “mistress of the manor” would be brief as she died on December 5th, 1905.

​The land remained in the greater Harris family until Julia’s son (Henry and Clarissa’s grandson), Henry Ross Harris Liggett, sold the property, by then 192 acres, to Charles Sager in 1932. Henry Liggett is buried in the Harris plot in Area R as well, and his name adorns the south side of the large monument.

Soon after the sale to CharlesSager, a couple from Calvert County purchased the farm in 1933. Their names were Jefferson and Mary Patterson. Some may be familiar with Mr. Patterson, a former US diplomat, as his name is synonymous with Maryland archaeology and preservation.

​Jefferson Patterson (May 14th, 1891 – November 12th, 1977) was an American diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Uruguay under Dwight D. Eisenhower, from 1956 to 1958. He married Mary Marvin (Breckinridge) Patterson in 1940. He also had assignments in Berlin, Belgium, Egypt, Greece, and the UN Special Committee on the Balkans. In addition, Mr. Patterson wrote a book, Diplomatic Duty and Diversion. He worked at the U.S. Embassy in Paris during World War II, and was in charge of French prisoners of war before the transfer of protecting power from the United States to Vichy, France.

​Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum (JPPM) is a 560-acre state park and museum located along the Patuxent River in St. Leonard, Calvert County, Maryland. The property of JPPM was given to the State of Maryland by Mary Marvin Patterson in 1983 in honor of her husband Jefferson Patterson. Both Jefferson and Mary are buried in Washington, DC's Rock Creek Cemetery. 

​Many of its buildings were designed by early female architect Gertrude Sawyer starting in the 1930s. The property has more than 70 identified archaeological sites, with current excavation and research being conducted. The land features 9,000 years of documented human occupation. The visitor center, located in a former cattle barn, features displays about the Pattersons, and about the science of archaeology and the work being done on the property.

The Exhibit Barn features a War of 1812 exhibit and displays of antique farm equipment. The 1812 Battle of St. Leonard's Creek occurred here, and a neighboring property, called the Brewhouse, is the ancestral home of the Johnson family and birthplace of our Gov. Thomas Johnson, Jr.

Seven years ago, I wrote a blog entitled All Hallow's Eve at Mount Olivet in which I revealed that I have yet to see a ghost in the vicinity of Frederick County's largest, and most historic burying ground.

I'm here many nights under the cloak of darkness, and, more recently, have been conducting my annual "Unsettling" Candlelight walking tours of the cemetery. I'm now in my 13th year of leading people around this "City of the Dead" with no incidents, save for the time I had some orbs flying around my head back about a decade ago. Oh, and just last week, I was talking about a decedent named William Nusz (1859-1903) who owned a cigar store in town back in the late 1800s. He was killed in a railroad accident when he decided to jump off a train at Point of Rocks before it had come to a complete stop. All of a sudden, while relaying his tale, many participants on the tour began commenting that they smelled cigar smoke....and no human was "puffing away" in the cemetery that I could see.

As I mentioned in that story back then,  even though I haven't seen ghosts, doesn't mean that they don't exist. And even if they do exist, doesn't mean that they are "camped out" here in the cemetery near their respective mortal remains. Think about it, if you were a ghost, wouldn't you rather be floating around in the comfort of your own home, hanging around descendants or visiting a favorite vacation spot? Heck, I'd enjoy lingering around a concert venue, sporting complex, or other source of "mortal pleasure" enjoyed while alive and well.

All Hallows’ Eve is a celebration observed on October 31st in a number of countries. This marks the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day, better known as All Saints Day, followed by All Soul’s Day. This three-day period that comprises Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed. 

On a website entitled Manoamano.nyc, I would learn the following about Día de Muertos, the Day of the Dead, an important celebration in Mexico since pre-Hispanic times.

The Mexica [meˈxika] (Aztecs) memorialized their dead for two months in the summer: Miccailhuitontli (for children) and Hueymicailhuitl (for adults). Spaniards introduced the Catholic calendar and moved the practice of honoring the dead to All Souls Day, celebrated on November 2nd.

The tradition is rooted in the native Mexican belief that life on earth is a preparation for the next world and that it is important to maintain a strong relationship with the dead. Families gather in the cemetery during this celebration to welcome the souls on their annual visit. In the houses, people prepare altars known as ofrendas with traditional ephemeral elements for the season, such as cempasúchil (marigold) flowers, copal incense, fresh pan de muerto bread, candles, papel picado, and Calaveras (sugar skulls). Photographs, mementos, and favorite items used by the departed are included.
 
The Mexica believed that when a person died, their teyolia, or inner force, went to one of several afterworlds, depending on how they died, their social position, and their profession (not by their conduct in life). There were special afterworlds for children, warriors, women in labor, and those who died by drowning. This tradition continues today with special altars built on specific days to honor different groups: October 28 for those who died in accidental or violent deaths, October 29 for individuals who drowned, October 30 for forgotten and lonely souls, October 31 for unborn children, November 1 for deceased children, and November 2 for adults who died a natural death, as well as for all other deceased adults. 

Although we don't have official exercises here at Mount Olivet in connection with the Day of the Dead, reminders of the soul, the afterlife, and spiritual journey are captured within monument design, gravestone iconography, scripture and other quotes found on the faces of funerary markers here. An interesting example is the grave monument adorning a gentleman named Daniel Fout. This marble marker can be found in Area M/Lot 69 along our western cemetery boundary.

Under the typical name and vital statistics of the decedent, a clever poem can be read by the keen-eyed "tombstone tourist:"

"There is but a step between me & death.

Remember friend as you pass by,
As you are now, so once was I;
As I am now, so you must be,
​Prepare yourself to follow me."

Our diarist, Jacob Engelbrecht, even chimed in on Fout's demise. 

"Died this afternoon in the 24th year of his age Mr. Daniel Fout of this county. His death was occasioned by being thrown from a horse and instantly died. He was to have been married on next Thursday to Miss Scholl on the Georgetown Road. Buried on the Lutheran graveyard."
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Monday, January 18th, 1830 

A brief newspaper account from the Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA of February 2nd, 1830 gives a bit more information on the accident:

"Fatal Accident - On Monday the 18th ult. as a Mr. Daniel Fout, of this vicinity, was returning home from town, his horse run against a tree with such violence, as to cause almost instant death."

Our subject was born on Christmas Eve, December 24th, 1805​ to parents Daniel Fout (1771-1810) and Barbara Fout (1775-1841). It is thought that he was born on the family farm and was not the first child of the couple's six known offspring to receive his father's name. There was an earlier son Daniel born April 11th, 1800 but died August 31st, 1804. He is buried in this same plot (Area M/Lot 69) which sits just south of the end of Confederate Row.

Our records note that both brothers, by the name of Daniel, were reinterred here in Mount Olivet on May 20th, 1908 after formerly being buried on the Fout family farm south of Mount Olivet and Frederick City. Of course, this raises a discrepancy here with Engelbrecht's account of the horse riding Daniel remark that Daniel was buried in the Lutheran Graveyard. 

The four other children of Daniel and Barbara Fout include: Jacob Fout (1797-1806), Lewis Fout (1801-1857), Otho Fout (1804-1835), and Charlotte Fout (1809-date unknown) None of these siblings are buried here in this plot in Area M, however Lewis and Otho appear elsewhere in the cemetery.

Daniel Fout's mother, Barbara, is buried a few yards away from his grave in Area M/Lot 69. Her first husband (Daniel) died in 1810, and she would remarry a man named John Lane (1771-1849), a native of Yarmouth, England. The couple wed on June 3rd, 1819.

As I "dug deeper" into the genealogy of this family, I found that Daniel and Barbara Fout were first cousins. Daniel's father was immigrant Jacob Fout (1728-1774) born in Sinsheim, a town in southwestern Germany in the Rhine Neckar Area of the state Baden Wurtemberg about 14 miles southeast of Heidelberg. Wife, (and cousin), Barbara was the daughter of Balthazar Fout (1736-1798), born here in America. Balthazar and Jacob Fout were brothers, both the sons of Jacob Pfaut/Faut (1701-1750) born in the village of Rohrbach located in Friedberg within Bavaria in southern Germany.  Rohrbach is northwest of Munich.

​The name Fout is also used as a nickname for a puffing person, from a noun derivative of Middle High German phusen meaning, "to breathe hard, puff." In early records, the name can be seen written as Pfaut, Pfout, and Faut.

The Fout family farm was located on northern Carrollton Manor, not far from Mount Olivet by way of New Design Road. Shown below is a portion of the Titus Atlas Map of 1873. I invite you to locate the notation that reads "Heirs of L. Fout," near bottom of this map. Their property was known as "Rocky Creek," bought by Jacob Pfaut/Faut (the adult immigrant) in 1738. Jacob would also purchase "Goose Nest," an adjacent tract of 30 acres, in 1752. The properties are located on the west side of New Design Road, just north of Ballenger Creek. This is now the general vicinity of the intersection of New Design Road and Corporate Boulevard.

​Daniel Fout's will of 1811 left property to his wife Barbara while his children were still minors at the time of his death. It was directed to be equally divided among them at a later time. In 1835, surviving son Lewis sold the property to John Lane, who had married his mother Barbara.

John would outlive Barbara. When John Lane died in 1849, he left the property in trust to George Fout for the benefit of Lewis Fout's children, as he had promised Barbara he would. This was formalized by a deed in 1868 after the children reached adulthood. Several of the children sold their rights in the property to their siblings George Late, Elizabeth and Mary Catherine Fout. George, Elizabeth and Mary would sell the property to Eugene Sponseller in 1905.

Let's get back to our original subject Daniel Fout, the young man who died while riding a horse, or falling off said horse. His evocative gravestone prose speaks volumes as a clever verse that reads like a riddle. I go back to the Engelbrecht diary passage and was struck with the fact that our subject was engaged and about to be married. All we can glean is that her name was Miss Scholl and they were to be married on the Georgetown Pike.

This was very interesting to me, and I made an attempt to find this woman. If eternal soulmates, perhaps it would be this Miss Scholl who could be a person of interest who might engage in "ghosting" around the particular plot of fiancé Daniel Fout. Likewise, if I could find Miss Scholl's grave, perhaps Daniel's spirit could be a frequent visitor there.  

If you take another look at that Titus Atlas of 1873, you will note that the greater Fout family owned property north and south of that owned by Daniel Scholl, and his plantation known as Manchester.  This is where Margaret Scholl grew up, being the daughter of Daniel and Mary Susan (Thomas) Scholl. You may know this Miss Scholl by her married name, Margaret Hood, the benefactress of Frederick's Hood College. Margaret Scholl Hood was born in 1833 (and died in 1913) and represents the wrong generation in question, as her parents were contemporaries with our subject Daniel Fout. However, Mrs. Hood's family namesake could have been our missing fiancée.

In looking closely at this family, and predicting the convenience of amour with "the girl next door," Daniel Scholl, son of 1812 veteran Christian Scholl (1768-1826), had at least three known sisters reach adulthood. One of these, Mary Elizabeth (1816-1886), can be discounted from our conversation as she was too young to marry in 1830 at 14 years of age. She would marry a man named Daniel Bentz in 1833 at the age of 17. Mr. Bentz died in 1842, and the former Miss Scholl would marry John H. Brunner (1813-1871). She would die in November, 1866 and is buried in Mount Olivet's Area C/Lot 134.

That leaves Catherine Scholl (1799-1878) and Rebecca Scholl (1807-1838). Catherine married Aeneas Hedges and is buried in Mount Olivet's Area C/Lot 85. I disqualify her because she married in 1820 and I was tickled to see that one of her sons was Lycurgus Hedges of whom I wrote an entire "Story in Stone" back in January 2019.

Rebecca Scholl married Cornelius Shriner in 1829, so she too can be scratched off the possibility list. This couple rests in perpetual peace in Area G/Lot 159. 

After a little more exploration, I started thinking about Jacob Engelbrecht's comment that the couple were to be married on the Georgetown Pike. This eventually had me looking for residences of the Scholl family on the main thoroughfare between Frederick and Washington, DC. We know this as Maryland route 355 today. I soon found an old advertisement from the early 1800s that mentioned a tavern belonging to Jacob Frederick Scholl which was located in Clarksburg, just over the line in Montgomery County. 

This led me to thinking that the wedding could have well been planned for Scholl's Tavern, a very popular destination on the Old Georgetown Pike. It now dawned upon me that Miss Scholl was likely related to this Frederick Scholl, who was kin to the other Scholls from Frederick.

​Frederick Scholl had purchased this tavern in 1800. The inn had earlier been known as Dowden's Ordinary since 1750, when Michael Ashford Dowden received a license to keep an ordinary at his home. Frederick Scholl obtained a tavern keeper's license soon after buying the property, and he and his wife Catherine operated the inn until his death in 1815. The tavern remained in the hands of the Scholl family until 1834. I don't have time for another drawn-out history story, but I will tell you that this historic tavern site had direct ties to the legendary Stamp Act Repudiation of 1765 by Frederick County's "Immortal Justices." 

If anything else, this tavern had to be the proposed site of Daniel's impending nuptials in late January of 1830. However, Frederick did not have any eligible daughters for Daniel Fout in the years leading up to untimely death in 1834.

After floundering in my quest to discover the mystery  fiancée of Daniel Fout, I would learn that his brother Lewis had actually taken a daughter of John Scholl (1772-1848) for a wife in 1829. This was Elizabeth M. Scholl, daughter of John and Catherine (Brengle) Scholl. Elizabeth had two sisters who could have been eligible bachelorettes for Daniel Fout in the late 1820s. These included Margaret Scholl (1808-1899) and Catherine Scholl (1810-1899). Both ladies would "tie the knot" in the year 1833: Margaret married Frederick William Cramer (1809-1866); and Catherine married Thomas Jefferson Myers (1811-1850).

​It's very likely that there was a relationship between these ladies and Daniel because they were one-time in-laws in the late 1820s. Saying that, there is a very good chance that one of these women could have been devastated in January, 1830 with the death of Daniel Fout as his soon-to-be wife. She would have to start again at square one leading to a marriage three years later if this was the case.

If Daniel wants to visit the grave of either of these ladies, he will be lingering in Frankfort, Indiana, or better yet, Area E near the John Scholl family plot. 

​Speaking of devastated by death of a significant other, Lewis Fout had experienced this tragedy just four months earlier with the death of his young bride. The aforementioned Elizabeth M. (Scholl) Fout would die one day short of her 27th birthday on September 13th, 1829 just months after her marriage to Lewis Fout on February 4th, 1829. The following obituary comes from the Frederick Town Herald newspaper of September 19th, 1829:  

So, using the above logic with Daniel Fout and his mystery Miss Scholl possibly visiting each other in our cemtery's Area M (Fout plot) or Area E (Scholl plot) or elsewhere as apparitions, maybe Elizabeth M. (Scholl) Fout could be found in "spirit form" hovering around her own final resting place or that of former husband Lewis Fout in Area P? However, I don't know the etiquette or the possibility of reciprocal visits from Lewis to her location in Area E since Lewis remarried, and his "last" wife," Mary Ann (Late) Fout, is buried right beside him.

I would also learn from diarist Jacob Engelbrecht that Lewis Fout had married three times in total. In order of things, I had been unaware of a third wife, but soon saw notations for all three in our Mount Olivet database. This lady was actually Lewis Fout's first wife named Lydia Ann (Routzahn). Lydia died within her first year of marriage to the man, as well, the same fate of Elizabeth. On November 6th, 1827, Engelbrecht would write:

"Died Suddenly today in the 24th year of her age, Mrs. Lydia Ann Fout consort of Mr. Lewis Fout & daughter of Mr. Routzahn near Middletown. They were married on the 15th of February last. Buried in the graveyard at Mr. Lane's farm."

Lydia was not moved to Mount Olivet like others that had been buried on the Fout family farm that would eventually be known as the Lane farm at the time Engelbrecht wrote this entry. Perhaps she is still there, or maybe her mortal remains are somewhere in the Middletown Valley where Routzahns have always reigned supreme.

I'd like to wrap up part I of this spirited, yet painful, genealogical heavy "Story in Stone." Let's conclude by deciphering the message that can be found on Daniel Fout's mother's gravestone. While not as clever as the first quote we started this story on upon Daniel's gravestone, it points to the high probability that Barbara (Fout) Lane was well-read, and likely the individual who had the earlier poem placed upon her son's grave.

I recently taught a course entitled Frederick in the Civil War  in the historic Francis Scott Key Chapel here on the grounds of Mount Olivet Cemetery. On the night of the first class, one of my students presented me with a khaki-colored, zippered canvas bag. It contained two, large, 3-ring binders, filled with copied documents all clad in transparent sleeve protectors. These documents ranged from old military records and regimental histories to government correspondence and handwritten depositions. Upon handing me the bag, the owner, Ms. Verena Rose, simply said: "Here's the info on Henry and Charlotte...good luck!"

I had met Verena, an Olney (MD) resident, one year earlier as she had taken my Frederick History 101 course the previous June of 2023. During a class intermission break for the forementioned 101 offering, I found myself out in front of the chapel talking with a few students. Verena asked if I had contemplated teaching a Civil War class, to which I replied that I was certainly planning to do so in the future. She revealed her interest in the subject and said that she was a member of the Frederick Civil War Roundtable.

I was moved to ask Verena if she had any Civil War ancestors from Frederick? She smiled, and said, "Yes, and he is buried right over there." She pointed to a spot about 30 yards away towards the rear of the chapel in Mount Olivet's Area L. Verena followed by saying that his name was Henry and she had learned through research that he was an "unsavory" character who had defrauded his wife.

My curiosity now piqued, we both took the opportunity to walk over to the "unsavory" man's final resting place and observe his gravestone closer.

On its face, the large marble marker included the names of Henry Durfey (May 15, 1841-March 31, 1913) and "his wife" Charlotte S. Durfey (August 27, 1845-March 13, 1923). Verena had presented me with not just another Union Civil War veteran in Mount Olivet, but more so, a bonafide "mystery man" who had apparently led a second life, plus had an alias to boot—"Hank Miller."

Verena and another family member had researched this man thoroughly a few decades back, more than fitting because she certainly knows her way around these types of characters and stories as a member of the "Mystery Writers of America (MWA)." Not only does she possess a passion for the historical mystery, she has written and published several short stories in the sub-genre.

Verena Rose is the Agatha Award nominated co-editor of Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea, An Interesting and Entertaining History of Malice Domestic’s First 25 Years and the Managing Editor of the Malice Domestic anthology series. In addition to serving as Chair of Malice Domestic, Verena is also a member of MWA, a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime-National, a member of Sisters in Crime Chesapeake, a member of the Historical Novel Society and a lifetime member of the Jane Austen Society of North America.

Verena is also the chief financial officer and acquisitions editor for Level Best Books as their representative, and is a member of the American Booksellers Association, the Crime Writers Association, the Historical Novel Society, and the Women’s Fiction Writer’s Association. If that's not enough, she hosts a podcast called "Sunday Tea with V," which can be found on the History Chronicles on Spotify for Podcasters.

Henry Durfey
So, what's the issue with Henry Durfey? Well, our mysterious "Story in Stone" subject here has more to do with "civil union" than participation in trying to save the "Union" during "the Civil War." He may have been a hapless casualty of war himself, but the true victim in this mystery was "his wife" Charlotte, but I must use that moniker loosely. Actually, I should say "wives."

To review, a civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage at the state level, however federal protections and benefits are not guaranteed. Many are familiar with the term "common law marriage" which results from the parties' agreement to consider themselves married, followed by cohabitation, rather than through a statutorily defined process.Not all jurisdictions permit common law marriage, but will typically respect the validity of such a marriage lawfully entered in another state or country.

Much to her surprise, shock and dismay, Charlotte S. Durfey would learn late in life that she had not been lawfully married to her supposed husband, at least in the eyes of the federal government. This was exposed when she desperately tried to lay claim to Henry's military pension after his death in 1913. However, the real shocker was learning that she was not alone.

The incredible research done by Verena features a plethora of pages in the aforementioned binders featuring correspondence between the Department of the Interior's Pension Bureau and Mrs. Durfey, a lifelong resident of Frederick. The Durfey surname is spelled a variety of ways (Durfee, Duffee, Duffy), but we will stick to what is "carved in stone" upon the couple's grave —Durfey. The binders' contents also document Henry Durfey's Civil War service with Battery M of the 1st New York Artillery Regiment, along with a medical discharge and a second enlistment with Company H of the 1st Potomac Home Brigade Maryland Infantry.

Interestingly, Henry Durfey would have a hard time getting his own pension after the war because past military records were riddled with inconsistencies and errors that in some cases, he, himself, had created. Primary sticking points would be the forementioned spelling of his last name and use of an alias for starters, but deeper problems related to his actual birth year, while other issues involved embellishment of injuries said to have been suffered during the war. 

Henry's birth dates in the federal military records differ from that carved upon his gravestone (May 17, 1841) here in Mount Olivet, and what can be found in our cemetery records (1839) from his death certificate. Discharge papers from December, 1863 report his age as 23 (which point to a birth in 1840).  He claimed his birthday to be April 3rd, 1837.

Henry brought up war injuries that had no historical backing in federal military records. He submitted a claim for an Invalid Pension in 1888, starting the process in Frederick County Circuit Court. In this claim, which was ultimately rejected by the Bureau of Pensions, he reported that he was debilitated by epileptic fits contracted through his military service.

At the time of the American Civil War, Charlotte was in her late teens, turning 17 just prior to Gen. Robert E. Lee bringing his Confederate Army here to Frederick in early September, 1862. This was mere weeks  prior to the nearby Battles of South Mountain and Antietam. It is about this time that Charlotte started performing care duties for sick and wounded soldiers at the Union Army's Hospital center in Frederick. This would also be a collision course with her destiny in meeting Henry Durfey.

According to his gravestone, we (at Mount Olivet) have assumed that Henry Durfey was born on May 15th, 1841 in Lockport, New York, a town in Niagara County. This location would come to prominence in the 1820s thanks to the famed Erie Canal.  As its name suggests, the community was known for its Flight of Five Locks, and gave work to many Scottish and Irish canal workers brought in as its labor force.  

Henry Durfey's father is said to have died when Henry was 12 years old, and his mother passed when he was 18. I could not find this individual in the 1850 or 1860 census records living in Niagara County.

Henry Durfey enlisted in the Union Army at Lockport on October 21st, 1861 and was mustered into military service at Rochester, New York a week later on October 28th, 1861. He and his fellow soldiers would soon find themselves at Camp Barry, a temporary artillery camp, in Washington, DC.

As mentioned earlier, Henry was originally with Battery M of the 1st New York Light Artillery. In 1862, this unit served under Williams' Division of the 5th Corps of the Union's Army of the Potomac. In January, the battery was ordered to Frederick to help guard transportation lines such as the railroad and canal. In early spring, they were stationed at Point Of Rocks and would soon be ordered to cross the river into Virginia at Harpers Ferry and serve within the Department of the Shenandoah. 

All the while, a lady named Nancy Jane Lake would play a role in our story, representing a proverbial "monkey wrench" to an otherwise, romantic, local love story. Nancy was a New York gal and a daughter of Bloomer and Elizabeth Lake of Wilson, New York. Wilson is also within the state's Niagara County. The village is northeast of the famed Niagara Falls and positioned on the coast of Lake Ontario. 

Nancy would marry a gentleman from Lockport, only 18 miles from Wilson. This was the forementioned  Henry Durfey. ​I'm not certain to the length of the courtship, but the couple had appeared before a Justice of the Peace in Nancy's home town on September 17th, 1860.  It appears that the marriage could have been of "the shotgun variety" with the bride-to-be presumably eight months pregnant at the time. Henry enlisted in the Union Army just over 13 months  later, and would leave for Rochester in November of 1861. 

Two daughters would be born to this union:  Sarah Elizabeth ("Elizabeth") on October 28th, 1860 ​and Rhoda Jane "Jennie" on May 11th, 1862. 

In the spring of 1862, Private Durfey and his unit were under the command of Major General Nathaniel Banks and engaged in fighting Rebel forces under Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson in Frederick County, Virginia and its county seat of Winchester. The First Battle of Winchester occurred on May 25th, 1862 and served as a great victory in what has been classified as Jackson's Valley Campaign. Henry Durfey either became sick or was wounded on the morning of June 18th, and subsequently taken to a place called "Union Hotel Rebel" in Winchester with bruised forehead and stomach. This location was a prominent hotel called the Union. Southern sympathizing citizens removed the U & N at the start of the conflict, causing it to be called the Ion Hotel.

Soldiers from both sides would be cared for here, and Union soldiers (eventually taken prisoner) would receive medical assistance from Confederate surgeons and staff. The name "Union Hotel Rebel" comes from a "Memorandum from Prisoner of War Records," and now seems to make better sense to me. I did read that the hotel would collapse in December, 1864 due to a heavy snowfall. In the mishap, seven Yankee soldiers would be crushed by a falling roof. 

Luckily, our subject Henry Durfey had long since left Winchester. He was sent to Frederick, Maryland's General Hospital #1 on June 22nd, 1862, shortly after his wounding or sickness. Again, documents such as the one pictured below say that our subject was suffering from a bruised forehead and stomach. Was this an injury caused by an attack of epilepsy? It sure sounds plausible. However, why is there no report of a shot finger, or left arm damaged by an exploding shell? Sounds like Henry may have conjured this up over time. Just wait until you see his work resume after the war.

For those not familiar with Frederick's General Hospital #1, the main facility was established on the grounds of the Hessian Barracks on South Market Street. This location was practically across the street from Mount Olivet Cemetery's main entrance. The original structures on "the Old Barracks" property consisted of a pair of stone buildings built for the Revolutionary War, and would grow to include at least five frame buildings, set on four acres of ground and enclosed by a board fence. The wooden structures had been built as regimental barracks for the Provost Guard during the Civil war.

In June 1862, the hospital was officially designated The United States General Hospital #1. By then, more suitable hospital ward buildings had been added. William W. Keen, an Assistant Surgeon at the hospital, noted that the new barracks were “finely ventilated” using a ridge-ventilation system, and could accommodate eighty patients each.
 
Here's a little aside that connects with Mount Olivet history. Along with Henry Durfey, a wartime adversary named Pvt. J. E. Johnson, was also brought to Frederick and the General Hospital from Winchester. This Confederate fought with the 16th Mississippi and suffered a gunshot wound to the lung. He and Durfey were among 500 patients transferred from the Winchester hospital to Frederick that late June/early July of 1862. Pvt. Johnson would expire from wounds suffered on July 15th, 1862 and afterwards brought to Mount Olivet to be the first  Rebel soldier buried in our Confederate Row.  

​Even with the new buildings, the hospital was still overcrowded. Henry Durfey was here during the month of September (1862) when Gen. Stonewall Jackson came to town and allegedly had a confrontation with our fabled heroine Barbara Fritchie on West Patrick Street. This account, of course,  came from the pen of New England poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Just days later, Durfey was visited at the General Hospital by former comrades of his unit, the 1st New York Light Artillery Company as they passed through town in pursuit of the Rebels after fighting engagements during the Virginia Peninsular Campaign over the summer.

Following the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, the hospital population here in Frederick swelled tremendously, causing the need for more places to treat the soldiers of both armies. This led to public buildings and churches throughout the city being utilized, along with many townspeople taking soldiers into their own homes as well.

On October 29th, 1862, Union Surgeon Robert F. Weir, who was in charge of General Hospital #1, wrote the Quartermaster General requesting that additional hospital wards be built. The enclosure expanded to eighteen acres. It was around this time that Henry Durfey was transferred to the Union's Invalid Corps, under the purview of the Army of the Potomac, and given "cook" and hospital attendant detail at the General Hospital. He apparently earned the nickname of "Hank Miller" through this Army employment by having a bag of flour on his head one day which spilled all over him and making him look like "a miller," one who grinds corn or wheat into flour. 

Private Durfey would remain in Frederick over the next year until July and August (1863), when he was dispatched to serve as an attendant at a hospital in Newtown, Virginia (northeast of Richmond). He would return to Frederick and his cook detail for the fall months of 1863. On November 16th, 1863, Henry was ordered to report to northern Virginia and the place called Convalescent Camp Virginia. Known also as Camp Misery, the poorly maintained facility had been replaced in February, 1863 with a new hospital camp, situated between Fairfax Seminary and Long Bridge in what is now Arlington County.

The old Camp Convalescent was renamed the Rendezvous of Distribution and Auger General Hospital, and was used as a distribution center to send "healed men" now "fit for field service" back to their regiments.
However, after inspection by a military surgeon, Private Henry Durfey was found unfit for military service because of epilepsy and frequent seizures, apparently contracted through his enlistment (likely the apparent trauma  received at Winchester over a year and a half earlier).  He was given a Certificate of Disability which was received by the Adjutant General's Office a few weeks later.

All the while, future problems would arise due to a clerical error in which  Durfey was inadvertently reported as "a deserter" in 1st New York Light Artillery muster rolls, claiming he skedaddled on his way to Virginia from the hospital of Frederick. This would be corrected upon his discharge at the end of the war.

Henry Durfey spent the year 1864 in Frederick by all accounts. He would not return to New York. In February, 1865, he would volunteer for an additional year's service with the 1st Potomac Home Brigade's Company A. This would  make him eligible for a government bounty (financial incentives) according to enlistment paperwork filled out in Frederick at the time. As a veteran, he now held the rank of corporal.  Durfey would eventually be transferred on April 8th to Company A under the 13th Maryland Infantry Regiment. 

Henry's supposed one year re-enlistment would only include three months of service due to Gen. Robert E. Lee's unconditional surrender of his Rebel Army in April, 1865. Corporal Durfey had successfully made it through the Civil War and was mustered out in Baltimore in May. He would settle down back in Frederick, the place he spent the majority of the war period. But, hold the phone, or telegraph, keeping things in proper historical context! What about wife Nancy (Lake) Durfey and his two daughters back in Niagara County, NY? ​

I found Nancy Durfey (spelled Duffey), along with Sarah Elizabeth and Rhoda Jane (Jennie), living with Nancy's parents in Wilson in the 1865 and 1875 supplemental state censuses of New York. In 1870, she was living with a sister in Wilson, NY.

Many soldiers in the Civil War, both North and South, never returned home because of death. These men, usually buried in far off places, left countless widows who lacked the means to travel and/or bring their beloved husband's bodies back home to family plots in local graveyards. Such is the fate of over 700 Confederate soldiers buried in Mount Olivet's Confederate Row lying beside the earlier mentioned J. E. Johnson of Mississippi. Likewise, many of the Union soldiers buried in Mount Olivet during the war never made it back to places such as New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, etc. Instead, most of the latter were re-interred at the Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg in 1867.

Nancy J. Durfey had last heard from her husband through a letter dated December 18th, 1863. Nothing more came from him, and she eventually learned that her husband had been captured at the Battle of the Wilderness in May of 1864. This conflict featured nearly 29,000 casualties, and not hearing from Henry again, she assumed that he had died, and was buried somewhere in the South.

We know this today because in September, 1881, Nancy tried desperately to receive a widow's pension to help take care of herself and two daughters. They were living in Lewiston, New York at this time. The process was slow and arduous for Nancy, and she was ultimately denied the pension because proof of her husband's death could not be found.

My friend Verena has many copies of correspondence from Nancy Durfey's pension request case courtesy of the Library of Congress. These include official government transcripts and personal affidavits of fellow soldiers and Lake family members assisting the plaintiff.

One of the most interesting testimonies comes from Henry Durfey's former commanding officers from the 1st New York Light Artillery's Battery M--Sergeant John H. Gormley and  Lieutenant John D. Woodbury (later promoted top captain). In May of 1883, both men put pen to paper recounting the last they saw, and knew, of Private Durfey.

As can be seen, Nancy's mother, Elizabeth Lake, would also attempt to aid her daughter in her time of need. The Second Auditor of the Treasury Department  summarized a report of the 1881 attempt by Nancy to claim a widow's pension. The "verdict" of a lengthy investigation which also revealed Durfey was still alive was sent to Mrs. Durfey two years after her claim was opened. Excellent information and correspondence came from the true "eyes and ears" of the nation of the time—individual town postmasters who had helped in locating Henry Durfey in Frederick, Maryland. Unfortunately, this represented nothing but heartache for the jilted Mrs. Henry Durfey, at least the first one.

It's not just the fact that Henry Durfey did not go back to New York or communicate with his first wife, he actually claimed that he had never married Nancy on military documents. When pressed for answers, he said he "skipped town" after getting her pregnant.

So the Treasury Department and Pension Bureau learned Durfey was alive in Frederick, and had deceived this poor woman back home by having her believe he was dead, all the while "living in illicit intercourse with another woman in Maryland." Frederick's postmaster described Henry Durfey as "a poor ignorant fellow, with a fondness for lewd women."

As this is information that was used internally by the Pension Bureau, and remains today as part of their records collection, I have no way to know if Nancy Durfey saw this full report and its contents, or learned the whereabouts of Henry. Hopefully, she did not hear of his crass rationale for not coming back or the fact that he was "remarried" with children in Frederick.

Usually,  in cases of war separation, the grieving or impatient wife or girlfriend remarries after their soldier goes missing, and doesn't come home. This case is certainly a unique turnabout.

So, you likely know who "the other woman" is by now. She is none other than Charlotte Hoffman. Charlotte unknowingly married Henry Durfey on February 24th, 1863. She met the soldier while working as a washerwoman and nursing attendant at Frederick's General Hospital in her aid of the sick and wounded during the Civil War. The couple wed at the Methodist Church in New Market. The former Miss Hoffman claims that Henry never mentioned being married before, and the same goes with failing to reveal the fact that he had two daughters living in northern New York.

Henry and Charlotte went on to have two daughters as well: Laura Rebecca (born March 24, 1864) and Ida Mae (born 1872). In subsequent census records of the late 19th century, Henry is listed as a laborer and as a farmer. The family can be found living at 466 West South Street. 

In perusing old newspaper archives, I saw almost nothing on Henry Durfey. However, I did see countless references to "Hank Miller." He is regularly doing odd jobs ranging from manual labor and hauling to planting trees and digging ditches for sewers. "Hank" can also be found working at Baumgardner's Butcher Shop, Calvin Page's Hinge factory and picked fruit at local orchards. A member of the Independent Hose Company, he was also appointed fireman at the Frederick County Jail for a while. 

​My favorite employment venture of our subject centered on rat extermination for homeowners,  businesses and farmers alike. Hank actually employed a unique labor crew of ferrets for this endeavor.

When Henry Durfey wasn't being productive, he was involved in general mischief, fights and wrong doing. Our veteran soldier (and perennial groom) apparently did not change his deceitful ways throughout life, and was a thorn in the side to municipal leaders. He was asked to leave town on numerous occasions, but always found his way back to Frederick . ​

Charlotte's daughter, Laura (Durfey), and husband Joseph C. Cramer would host the wake of her father at their home on South Street. They also made arrangements to have Henry's body buried in their own family plot within Area L and utilizing Lot 53. 

​​The story doesn't end here, no sir! Charlotte Durfey now took her turn in trying to claim her rightful share of Henry's military pension. In the process, she would learn the bitter truth that she was not the only widow of Henry Durfey. This was her family's first learning of Henry's other family in New York. In fact, Charlotte would come to find that the US Government did not recognize her (Charlotte) as a widow at all.

​The Pension Bureau had all the paperwork associated with Nancy J. Durfey's rejected claim as rightful heir to Henry's pension from 30 years earlier. Since Durfey never divorced Nancy, the second "marriage" to Charlotte did not count as a lawful and recognized civil marriage deserving the benefit of a widow's pension from the US government. However, if Nancy had been alive at this time, she would have now been entitled to a widow's pension due to Henry's death.

Charlotte worked desperately to convince the government of her deserved claim. Unfortunately the Methodist minister from New Market who married her fifty years earlier had long since passed, and any record of the nuptials could not be gotten from the church. Charlotte claims in the documentation that Henry, himself, destroyed their copy of the marriage certificate after a domestic squabble one night.

Verena Rose's second binder contains dozens of pages of correspondence with the government, and examples of testimony, including that from Charlotte, daughter Laura, along with several neighbors/Frederick residents. Charlotte had to claim that not only had she legally married Henry Durfey, and that they lived together as man and wife, but also had the responsibility to prove that she had never divorced the man, although they lived apart for the last 16 years of his life.

The special examiners at the Pension Bureau believed Charlotte to be an honest individual and upstanding citizen by reputation, and received the local references to back it up, however without proper documentation as Henry's lawful wife, they could not process the claim on her behalf.

Charlotte's last chance came with investigating court records in New York in the hopes that Henry had actually secured a divorce from Nancy (Lake) Durfey, or vice-versa. Instead, she would learn of Nancy's death in 1891, with no divorce ever filed. Of most interest to me was a deposition taken on November 24th, 1914 at Niagara Falls, New York involving a Jane Nichols, wife of Alva D. Nichols. This was Henry's second daughter with Nancy J. Lake—the former Rhoda Jane "Jennie" Durfey born May 11, 1862. She stated that her mother, married Henry in 1860 in her hometown of Wilson, but the last name was always spelled Duffee, not Durfey. She also said that her older sister Elizabeth (wife of Alexander Scott, and residing in Lewiston, NY) had died just five weeks earlier. Jane here offers the information that her mother died in 1891 and was buried in the Lewiston, NY Cemetery, however says there is no headstone marking her grave. 

The investigators were given photos of Henry by each family, and these were also shown to both, further proving that they were all connected to the same man in Henry. No such records of divorce were found, and other witnesses (including family members) in New York gave testimony to the fact that Nancy never remarried, or made any effort to obtain a divorce even after learning that Henry was still living through her claim rejection in the early 1880s. Charlotte would learn that Nancy  was destitute and crippled at the time of her death, again at the age of 49 as stated earlier.

​Charlotte saw the writing on the wall and soon realized her attempt was fruitless by the end of 1914. She would receive her rejection letter in late January, 1915.

Charlotte's heartbreak must have been two-fold knowing that not only had herself and two children been deceived by Henry Durfey, but so had Nancy and her two daughters as well.

The last few pages of Verena's second binder contain documentation in February and March of 1915 in which the heirs of Nancy J. Durfey (Duffee) are inquiring of the the Pension Bureau as to their own opportunity of claiming any money due them past, or present. They were quickly shut down by the government, and all cases involving Henry Durfey were closed.

As for Charlotte (Hoffman) Durfey, she passed away on March 14th, 1923. ​In time, Charlotte would join her "common law" partner here in Mount Olivet Cemetery.  I smile in thinking that someone made sure that the grave monument sitting atop the Durfey's  gravesites reads, "his wife Charlotte." 

Naturally, Laura and Joseph Cramer would be laid to rest here in this lot.  They are Verena Rose's great-great-grandparents, thus making Henry and Charlotte Durfey her third great-grandparents. I may add that it might be a stretch to use the adjective "great" when referring to Henry Durfey, but without him, we wouldn't have this lengthy "Story in Stone," or more importantly, Verena Rose, now would we? ​

September 14th marks the anniversary of the unexpected death of Jesse Lee Reno, a career US Army officer who served in the Mexican–American War, the Utah War, the western frontier, and finally, the American Civil War. He was the highest-ranking military officer to die in the line of duty in Frederick County during the decisive conflict of the mid-19th century. 
​
This Union general was known as a "soldier's soldier" who fought alongside his men. Gen. Reno had recently opposed his former West Point classmate and friend, Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, during the Second Battle of Manassas (or Bull Run) just over three weeks earlier.

It’s ironic that both of these men, Reno and Jackson, are said to have had poignant conversations with Frederick’s most famous nonagenarian ­­­­and flag-waver, Barbara Fritchie. This happened in September, 1862 and it has been reported that Reno actually spent time with the patriotic maven just a few days after her alleged “wrangling” with Gen. Jackson.

When passing through town on the 12th, Reno and his brother supposedly encountered Barbara waving a small flag while standing in front of her home on West Patrick Street while the Union Army was heading west in pursuit of the Confederates via the National Road. The Renos are said to have witnessed Barbara holding her flag on the south side of the street in front of her home by Frederick’s Carroll Creek.

Simultaneously, their eyes were also caught by another resident on the north side of the street, here, by the approach of the bridge crossing over the town creek. This lesser-known figure in the annals of local history lore was another patriotic senior citizen aged in his upper 80s — Rev. Joseph Trapnell. Seeing both these mature individuals caused Gen. Reno to cheerfully call out to his soldiers, “Behold the Spirit of ’76!”
​
This insinuated that both of these Frederick residents were the products of a greater generation who were alive at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (July 4th,1776) and witnessed our country winning the American Revolution. Gen. Reno then told his brother Frank that the aged female civilian reminded him of his deceased mother. With that, the Reno brothers apparently stopped to visit Barbara at her house by Carroll Creek.

​Barbara is said to have given the officer currant wine, along with allowing an opportunity to write a letter home from her family desk. As a parting gift, Dame Fritchie allegedly presented Reno with a flag, perhaps the one she supposedly waved at Jackson a few days earlier when she uttered the immortal line made famous by poet John Greenleaf Whittier:
​
“Shoot if you must, this ole gray head, but spare your country’s flag.”

Ironically, it would be this flag that would accompany Reno’s dead body on its trip home to Massachusetts for proper burial a few days later.

​Gen. Jesse Reno died atop South Mountain on September 14th, 1862 while leading his men against Rebel forces in the vicinity of the Wise Farm at Fox’s Gap. This was the result of a sharpshooter’s bullet as Reno was surveying the field prior to twilight after a long day of battle.

​Gen. Reno's death would be a tremendous loss for the Union Army. He would be memorialized with a monument placed where he fell. Reno also has a road named for said monument here in county, but this isn't quite as impressive as the city named for the fallen officer in Nevada. 

Jesse Reno is buried in Washington D.C.’s Oak Hill Cemetery, and Barbara is, of course, residing in Mount Olivet as she would die just a few months after her meeting with the Union general. A couple hundred yards away from the heroine's grave is that of the other Frederick participant involved in the Reno “Spirit of ‘76” episode. Rev. Joseph Trapnell is buried in Area E/Lot 14.

​So, just who was Rev. Joseph Trapnell? Well, there were three individuals (all related) holding that name in September of 1862 when Reno came through town. Representing three generations of this English family, our subject was an immigrant to this country and both father and grandfather to the other two. Ironically, he would not possess the true "Spirit of '76" as he was an English citizen living in Great Britain at the time of the American Revolution. However, he was a Union supporter during the American Civil War, four-score later.

​Rev. Joseph Pearse Trapnell was a former Protestant Episcopal Minister, born in the neighborhood of Tiphill  in Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, England. This civil parish is located ten miles east of Exeter and is known for St. Mary’s Church, dating from 1260. This Gothic masterpiece was consecrated 516 years before the legendary happenings in Philadelphia and the Continental Congress in July of 1776. However, our Rev. Trapnell was born a year earlier on November 8th, 1775 and was likely baptized in the ancient house of worship there near the banks of the Otterly River.

​Joseph and his sister Eleanor (b. 1759) were the children of John Trapnell (1734-1814) and Martha Leate (1737-1802). I found Trapnell family ancestors living here in Ottery St. Mary dating back to the 1500s, but could be much earlier.

I learned nothing of Joseph’s childhood or entry into the clergy, however I did find a marriage entry date of April 24th, 1809 at St. Thomas' Church in Salisbury, England, some 80 miles to the east of his childhood home. A reference hinted that Joseph could have eloped. Regardless, his bride took the form of Harriet Wylds, born January 29th, 1790 in Bemerton, Wiltshire, England. Our cemetery records show that she was the daughter of William and Sarah Wylds of Bemerton.

​​Always interested in geography, I found this village just outside of Salisbury and located roughly eight miles south of the famed Stonehenge. Bemerton is also eight miles away from Amesbury, the English namesake town for Amesbury, Massachusetts where John Greenleaf Whittier lived and penned his Ballad of Barbara Fritchie in 1863.

I know the couple lived here in Bemerton for at least five years after they exchanged vows because their three children were born here. This included Sarah Trapnell (b. January 10th, 1810), William Henry Trapnell (b. December 12th, 1811) and Joseph Trapnell, Jr. (b. June 19th, 1814). 

The Joseph Trapnell family would make its way to America and Maryland, with homes I assumed being dictated by his profession as a minister. He was naturalized as a United States citizen on September 25th, 1828, however he had come earlier. I would discover through immigration documents on Ancestry.com that this would be in June, 1819. The family shows up on the Frederick City census in 1820.

​I couldn't identify the Trapnell's home in 1820, but, in time, the Trapnells would own many properties in Frederick County including Frederick, Brunswick, Petersville and Middletown. Much of this was done by Rev. Joseph Trapnell, Jr. who would serve (later in life) as rector of St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church in Petersville in western Frederick County. My assistant, Marlyn Veek, compiled the following report of Trapnell property purchases:

Frederick:
Joseph Trapnell Sr. bought the lot just east of Carroll Creek, fronting W. Patrick Street, in 1824. Trapnell sold his lot to his sons Joseph and William in 1866. Today it has the address of 155-157 West Patrick Street.

​Let's get back to our other leading patriot of West Patrick Street, Rev. Joseph Trapnell, Sr. He sold the western portion of his West Patrick Street property to our legendary Frederick diarist Jacob Engelbrecht in the year 1826. This land actually bordered the creek and was situated exactly across from the original Barbara and John Fritchie house. Jacob writes about this with an entry in his diary on April 13th, 1826:

“This day I entered into articles of agreement with the Reverend Joseph Trapnell for a lot of ground adjoining Carroll’s Creek (east side) running with Patrick street to within eleven feet of his brick house dwelling and back to within three feet of his brick house. I having the privilege of the passage or alley terms three hundred dollars. One hundred down, one hundred in one year & one hundred in two years without interest. I am to have my deed by the 6 of May next. George Rohr Esquire holds the contract.”

Interesting to note that when Rev. Trapnell’s sons (William and Joseph, Jr.) sold their father’s property in 1869, the deed mentions that the sale did not include a 10-foot square parcel situated in the rear of Jacob Engelbrecht's house which had been granted to Engelbrecht to erect a "privy.”

​Engelbrecht and Trapnell went on to have a lifelong friendship and mutual respect as neighbors. This can be evidenced by Rev. Trapnell having Jacob as a witness to his own last will and testament in 1840, and again with a revision in 1860. Jacob also made an entry heralding Rev. Trapnell’s naturalization date, mentions a number of local weddings administered by the clergyman and discusses additions and improvements that Rev. Trapnell made to his home from time to time.

​When looking through J.T. Scharf’s 1882 History of Western Maryland for references to Rev. Joseph Trapnell, Sr., I found an interesting reference (on pg 518) saying that both Joseph and wife Harriet became members of Frederick’s Baptist Church on May 23rd, 1827.  However, the anecdote states that Joseph was excommunicated on July 25th, 1829. He would switch teams and join the Protestant Episcopal Church and was ordained in 1835 by a Bishop Stone. He became rector of St. Peter's Church in Montgomery County.

​From 1836-1844, Rev. Trapnell served as rector of Urbana’s Zion Protestant Episcopal Church. I also found that in 1837, he was a "professor of grammar" at St. John's College in Annapolis. This was the same school that Francis Scott Key attended at the turn of the 19th century. I saw several advertisements of him marrying local couples  here and in Montgomery County into the 1840s. 

Rev. Trapnell's greatest accomplishments were raising his children into adulthood and moving to America. He guided his sons toward careers with the church. As for his daughter, Sarah, she would marry in 1837, but would not be far from her father throughout her life. Sarah married a local man named Asfordby Beatty (b. 1807), a descendant of early Frederick settler Susannah (Asfordby) Beatty who came here in the 1730s  from Kingston, New York. Sadly, their marriage together was short as he would die in 1848, leaving her with at least four boys to care for. A year prior in 1847, Sarah had lost a 10-month-old daughter, Sarah Ellen. She would move back into the family home on West Patrick Street and can be found living here in both the 1850 and 1860 censuses with her parents and sons. 

​Rev. Trapnell's beloved wife, Harriet, would die suddenly on June 13th, 1853. Jacob Engelbrecht took time to report this loss in his diary, and a short announcement appeared in the Baltimore Sun. Mrs. Trapnell was buried in All Saints' Burying ground before being brought to Mount Olivet where she was later laid to rest in Area E/Lot 14 on December 23rd, 1854. Mount Olivet would not open until May, 1854 and at some point Sarah would re-bury her husband Asfordby, and daughter Sarah Ellen Beatty, here as well on December 15th, 1863 in Area F/Lot 68. This was less than five months before her own death.

As for Sarah Beatty, she was likely at arms reach to her father as he cheered Gen. Reno and the Union soldiers on September 12th, 1862. She would die less than two years later on April 6th, 1864 at the age of 54. Not only did Jacob Engelbrecht write about her death in his diary, he mentioned the honor of serving as a pall bearer for her funeral along with leading citizens Edward Trail, George W. Delaplaine and Valerius Ebert.

​In retirement, Rev. Joseph Trapnell, Sr. filled his time with his grandchildren and served on the Board of Directors of the Frederick Town Savings Institution in the late 1850s and early 1860s. After the death of his daughter and the end of the Civil War, it was decided best that he live with his son, Rev. Joseph, Jr. in the small village of Petersville. The younger Rev. Trapnell was the rector here at this time, and we discussed his living arrangements earlier in the story while taking charge of St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church. Rev. Joseph Trapnell, Sr. appears in the 1870 US Census living here. This enumeration was taken in the early summer of that year. 

Just a few months later, the English immigrant would pass on September 5th. His body would be brought to Mount Olivet for burial. ​

While there, Rev. W. H. Trapnell courted a profound, local woman named Mercy Annie Allen (1832-1908) for a few years. Ms. Allen was well educated and was an instructor at a school destined to become New York University. In 1872, Reverend Trapnell left Amsterdam for a parish in Upper Marlboro, Maryland at which time Annie and he finally married. She was 40, he was 60. He died four months later here in Upper Marlboro, the county seat of Price Georges County.

I learned that the new Mrs. Trapnell would not remarry, but would dedicate herself to the cause of advancing women. Her true claim to local fame was in establishing a local library for her town and also The Century Club in 1895. This latter achievement is still revered today in Amsterdam as her philanthropic and educational drive occurred at a time when women had not been received into full intellectual equality with men. Ms. Allen, knowing there were other women who shared her interest in books and study, invited twenty five friends to become the charter members of the Shakespeare-Browning class. These twenty five friends invited four friends each. When they met in one place, there were a hundred women searching for culture, self-improvement and knowledge.

​By 1908, the time of "Annie" Trapnell's death, the membership of The Century Club had increased to 250 women. The  Century Club still operates today, and St. Ann's would receive a memorial pulpit dedicated to Rev. William Henry Trapnell. Both Rev. Trapnell and wife Mercy Annie (Allen) Trapnell are buried in Amsterdam, New York's Green Hill Cemetery.

​​The Trapnells eventually moved to Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa, where a new Protestant Episcopal church, St. John's, had recently been built.  Missions were also being formed as Iowa had just received statehood in late 1846. The family would be back living in Frederick County by the early 1860s as Rev. Joseph Trapnell, Jr. would serve St. Mark's Church in Petersville.  

​We started this article talking about the American Civil War and it is very etched upon my mind as of late as I am currently teaching a four-week course entitled "Frederick in the Civil War" under my History Shark Productions brand. With Rev. Joseph Trapnell, Jr's enthusiastic support of General Jesse Reno in September, 1862, he followed up by making a generous contribution less than a year later after the Battle of Gettysburg for the care of Union soldiers. One would think the man, and his family, were avid and loyal supporters of the Union cause. That brings us to Rev. Trapnell's namesake grandson Joseph, Jr. who was a southern sympathizer and secessionist.

In Jacob Engelbrecht's diary, I found this entry dated August 2nd, 1862:
​
"More Arrests - Last night (near 10 o'clock Friday August 1 1862) the Provost Marshal entered the shoe store of J.F. Hill (middle store of German Reformed building) and arrested Mordaunt C. Winchester, Adolphus Fearhake, Junior, Francis Brengle, James McSherry Junior, J.R. Hill, Joseph P. Pope, Joseph P. Myers, Milton G. Urner and Joseph Trapnell of Jos Junior. Subsequently, they arrested Thomas E. Pope, John Myers. Winchester, Fearhake, Brengle, McSherry, Trapnell, & Pope were released on Sunday night 9 o'clock August 17 1862 by taking the oath of allegiance to the United States."

This Joseph Trapnell's life story is equally interesting and we can again thank his grandfather (Rev. Joseph Trapnell, Sr.) for help making it possible. Here is a transcript of an obituary for this gentleman from a Charles Town, WV newspaper called the Spirit of Jefferson and published March 19th, 1912:

"Joseph Trapnell III of Charles Town, W Va, died Saturday, am March 16, 1912. Born in the city of Annapolis, Md, September 1, 1842.  A grandson of Rev Joseph Trapnell, who was born at Ottery, St Mary, Devonshire, England, November 8, 1775. Oldest son of Rev Joseph Trapnell, D D, who was born at Bemerton, Wiltshire, England, June 19, 1814. Our subject's boyhood days were spent in Baltimore, Bristol, R I , and Keokuk, Iowa, where his father was rector of churches in these places. He commenced the study of law in the office of Belknap & Lomax, at Keokuk, Iowa, in 1859.

In 1861 (his father having moved to St Mark's parish, Frederick Co, Md) he continued his legal studies with Joseph Palmer, esq, a noted attorney of Frederick, Md, until Sept 1862, when he entered the Confederate Army on the 12th, Company G, 7th Va Cavalry, where he remained until the late fall of 1864, when he joined the Maryland Battalion, which had the honor of being the last part of the noble army of northern Virginia to surrender.

In the summer of 1865 he continued his interrupted studies in the office of the late N S White, esq, at Charles Town, W Va. In Oct, 1866, he was admitted to the bar at Frederick, Md, and commenced the practice of his profession with his late preceptor, N S White, making the firm of White & Trapnell. On Nov 20, 1866, he was united in marriage in Zion Church, Charles Town, with Miss Rebecca Holmes White, only child of his preceptor and partner. The Rev Joseph Trapnell officiated.

His long useful life in the practice of his profession was spent in this ancient and beautiful town. He was chancellor of the diocese of West Virginia, a lay deputy to the general convention of the church, which meets every three years, since 1889; a vestryman, of Zion church, Charles Town, or warden, for upwards of forty years. Throughout the whole valley of Virginia, especially, and in all parts of the state and adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland, in many parts his professional ability made him much sought after - especially in the intricacies of the great science, he was known to be a master of the law.

Respected, honored, loved by the whole community, after a life spent there of nearly 47 years, he will be missed in the church and state. He leaves a widow and one sister. His brother is Dr R Watkins Trapnell, of Point of Rocks, and his sister Miss Ella Trapnell, of Middletown, Md."

Joseph Trapnell III is buried in Zion Cemetery in Charles Town as are many of his siblings and children. One of these is his oldest son, Benjamin Trapnell (1867-1926) who joined the US military, but his stay was brief. 

​Benjamin and several cousins attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland—although Benjamin's military career was cut short by an infamous hazing incident. On August 31st, 1883, Captain Ramsay convened a court-martial to try the third-class cadets accused of violating the Hazing Law.

​The court-martial made national news and received daily coverage in the New York Times and other large newspapers. The first cadet tried was Benjamin Trapnell, who had the most numerous and serious hazing charges against him. Trapnell’s alleged acts included making some fourth-class cadets stand on their heads while wearing only nightshirts, making another sit cross-legged in his hammock while he swung the hammock until the underclassman was thrown to the deck, and making another lie motionless in a tank in the washroom for ten minutes. The court convicted Trapnell. 

Several other cousins were officers in the United States Army as was Benjamin's brother, Wallace Probasco Trapnell, who served in the Signal Corps. Following his father, Frederick Mackay Trapnell attended the Naval Academy, graduated, and was commissioned an ensign in 1923. Frederick Trapnell was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. After serving for two years at sea on board the battleship USS California and the cruiser USS Marblehead, Trapnell was assigned to Naval Air Station Pensacola in 1926 for flight training, thus beginning his career as a naval aviator.

Frederick M. Trapnell was the first US Navy pilot to fly a jet aircraft, was considered the best, most experienced naval test aviator of his generation, co-founded the branch's first test pilot school, and played a pivotal role in both the development of future Naval aircraft and the survival of the post-World War II Navy's air arm. In 2015, Trapnell was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. 
​
Trapnell was appointed as commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea, effective April 29, 1950. He immediately put his extensive aviator experience to use in order to increase efficiency. Among other innovations, Trapnell revised the system and apparatus utilized for carrier take-offs, considerably streamlining the amount of time expended for the procedure.
 
In February 1951, he was promoted to rear admiral and became- in March- deputy commander of both Sandia Base and the Field Command Armed Forces Special Weapons Project at Albuquerque, New Mexico. He served in this capacity until April 1952 and soonafter medically retired with the rank of vice admiral.
 
After the Navy, Frederick M. Trapnell worked as a consultant for Grumman Aircraft for the next 23 years and became a sailing enthusiast. On April 1st, 1976, the air field at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland's St. Mary's County was officially named "Trapnell Field" in his honor. 

Frederick W. Trapnell was a cousin of Bataan Death March survivor, Thomas John Hall "Trap" Trapnell (1902–2002), a United States Army lieutenant general. He was the son of Joseph H. Trapnell, Jr. (1871-1922), son of Joseph Trapnell III of Charles Town. This gentleman was a West Point grad and career officer who served in World War II and the Korean War. Trapnell survived the Bataan Death March and the sinking of two transportation ships during World War II, put down a rebellion of prisoners of war in the Korean War, was the top US advisor to the French during the French Indochina War, and advised against US involvement in Vietnam. He rose to the rank of three-star general before his military retirement and, at the time of his death, was the oldest living member of the Philippine Scouts.

​Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Trapnell's brother, Walter Scott Kennedy Trapnell, rose to the rank of commander in the United States Navy during World War II. Commander Trapnell, was a 1921 graduate of the United States Naval Academy who married five times and was forced to leave the Navy when an investigation allegedly uncovered evidence that he was operating a bordello while stationed in the Panama Canal Zone. His wife had attended Radcliffe College and was a member of an old Massachusetts family.

​​Enter son Garrett Brock Trapnell (1938-1993), the most infamous Trapnell of them all. His parents were divorced when he was 4, and he lived his younger years with his mother in Massachusetts. Garrett dropped out of high school, and lived for a time in a brothel in Panama City and joined the Army at the age of 17. He served at Fort Hood, Texas where an uncle was the commanding general, but he developed a long record of infractions and was finally discharged after he shot himself, apparently accidentally.

This led to a colorful career as a con man, bank robber, and aircraft hijacker of the 1960s and early 1970s. Trapnell robbed a string of banks in Canada, frequently posed as an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, masterminded a $100,000 jewelry store heist in Freeport, Bahamas, and simultaneously maintained marriages with at least six women. When arrested for his crimes, he frequently feigned madness and successfully used the insanity defense to be committed to mental institutions, from which he would later escape or be released on the grounds that he was no longer dangerous. While serving life imprisonment for the hijacking of a TWA passenger airliner in 1972, he was the subject of a book, The Fox Is Crazy Too, written by journalist Eliot Asinof.

Our subject, Joseph Trapnell, Sr., gave rise to American patriots just like his neighbor Barbara Fritchie who was a poster child for inspiring countless others. The Protestant Episcopal minister had a lineage that gave us at least three great, great grandsons who would shine through their military duty to his new country of the United States of America and countless other descendants who continue to make important contributions. Unfortunately, there is always one bad apple in every bunch. That would be his scoundrel great, great, great grandson who was not a shining legacy to say the least.

You can't win them all, I guess, but what a fascinating history of a family progenitor buried in Frederick's Mount Olivet —one of oh, so many fascinating progenitors.

​Labor Day is upon us once again! As many know, this isn’t a religious or cultural day of observation, but rather a federal holiday celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor, and recognize, the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States.

Not all individuals get the day off, but most do. Naturally, those that have to labor on Labor Day are generally employed within health and public safety professions, while others are engaged in hospitality (hotel/restaurant/attractions) and retail trades. The first Labor Day in America was celebrated in New York in 1882. Other states started recognizing the holiday one by one until it was made a national holiday in 1894.

I wonder if John Walter, our featured subject for this week’s “Story in Stone,” labored on Labor Days throughout his lifetime? He died in October, 1905, having the opportunity to celebrate eleven Labor Days if my math is correct.

John Walter was an immigrant who came to Frederick in the mid-19th century and "labored" as a professional collector and purveyor of junk and scrap, and what others would deem trash. But let me clarify, there is certainly a difference, and distinction, to be made between junk and scrap and trash—especially to the well-trained eye. Few in Frederick’s past (and present) can rival the success experienced by John Walter, although Mount Olivet resident Bernie Winkel certainly comes to mind. Mr. Winkel, the self-proclaimed “Used Car King of Maryland,” had a scrapyard of old Model T's and other vehicles which was located on W. Patrick St. at the site of the soon to be gone Patrick Street Center. He specialized in automobiles and “junk cars” for “junk parts,” where Mr. Walter was open to “junk” of all sorts, shapes and sizes.

John Walter achieved a great reputation as a businessman, and held a high standing in the community. This is quite impressive for a humble “junk dealer.” He is buried in Mount Olivet’s Area G/Lot 62 and his final resting spot is marked with an impressive monument featuring a shrouded woman with arms folded across her chest, gazing upwards toward the heavens in what appears to be prayer and contemplation. The white marble statue sits atop a polished, granite base. Upon closer inspection, one will notice that the woman is actually holding a small anchor in her left hand. Anchors represent "hope" in the annals of monument iconography. 

​Volume II of T.J.C. Williams’ History of Frederick County, Maryland includes biographies on notable living Frederick Countians. At the time of its publishing in 1910, John Walter was included posthumously as he  had passed five years earlier in 1905, as already mentioned. Here is a transcript of that biography which appears on pg. 981 of the original printing:

“The Late John Walter, a retired business man and capitalist of Frederick, Md., was born in Germany in 1825.
Mr. Walter’s parents died while he was a little child and he was cared for by friends. He received his education in the public school and he was still but a lad when he began to learn the machinists’ trade. He was a little more than a child when he was thrown upon his own resources and was literally compelled “to paddle his own canoe.” He was only sixteen when he decided to go to America, of which he had heard so much. He had very little money, but not being one who was deterred by slight obstacles, he found a place on a ship where he was allowed to work for passage money. He came at once to Frederick, Md., and, for a time, things looked pretty dark for the orphan boy, alone in a strange land, without money or friends. No one had any employment for him, and he was almost in despair but at length Mr. F(rederick) Pampel gave him a place as a machinist. The youth was faithful to his duties there and, at the end of five years, he was employed by Doub & Glaze, machinists.

​After spending four years with this firm, Mr. Walter began buying “junk.” He had good judgment in buying and made a great success of his enterprise. The same sound judgment guided him in investing his profits, and at his death, Mr. Walter possessed railroad securities and valuable real estate in Frederick and in the surrounding county. He always respected the rights of his fellow men, never overreaching them, but was strictly upright and honorable in all his dealings. A large share of his fortune was made during the Civil War in which he took no active part. After that time, he was a Republican. Mr. Walter was a resident of Frederick from his youth, and had been actively interested in everything related to the development and prosperity of his adopted City. He soon won a competence and, secure from fear of want in his old age, he enjoyed life thoroughly. His friends were legion, and to one and all he extended most hospitably, the courtesies of his comfortable home. He was an entertaining conversationalist, and his friends enjoyed his graphic account of the way in which he obtained his start in financial affairs. He was a member of the Odd Fellows, of the encampment, and of the Order of Red Men.

John Walter was married, in 1848, to Elizabeth Pampel, a daughter of his first employer. Of their ten children, eight reached maturity: 1. Sarah C., married to John O. Smith, a lumber merchant of Hagerstown, Md.; 2. Jacob W. of Hanover, Pa.; 3. Alice V., married to Jacob F. Snyder, a retired farmer of Germantown, Md.; 4. Charles G., deceased; 5. Lewis C., a locksmith, of Frederick City; 6. Florence M., (Mrs William F. Snyder), of Frederick City; 7. Edward H., optician, Hanover, Pa.; 8. Bertie E., married first to the late Professor Mitchell E. Daniels, of Vergannes, Vt., and after his death to James F. Eldridge, of Washington, D.C. For more than three decades, Mr. Walter resided at the old home on North Market Street where he died October 26, 1905, and was laid to rest in Mount Olivet Cemetery, beside his wife, who had died in 1902. He held the faith of his ancestors and was identified with the Lutheran Church. For more than thirty years, he had been superintendent of the Sunday School, and actively engaged in the work among the young people with whom he was a great favorite.”

​Jacob Engelbrecht’s diary features several entries involving Mr. Walter and was well-known to the author in addition to attending the same church. As a matter of fact, John Walter lived across the street from the tailoring business shop that Jacob and his brothers operated on N. Market Street just north of the old Market House/Town Hall (today’s home of Brewer’s Alley Restaurant).

A few diary entries around the time of the Civil War were particularly interesting:

“Our neighbor, Mr. John Walter, who went to Winchester about 2 months ago on the trading business, that is, following the United States Army, was taken prisoner by the army of General (Stonewall) Jackson (Rebel) & taken with the prisoners captured of the First Maryland regiment of Colonel Kenly, Jackson took nearly all the civilians who were trading with the Yankees, as they call the United States Army. This information was received today from a gentleman who had been to Winchester. He was captured May 25, 1862."
Friday, June 6, 1862

"Mr. John Walter arrived in our town this forenoon at 11 & 1/2 o’clock in the Hagerstown Stage. He was not captured but was in Winchester on the day of the fight (May 25) & saw much of the battle. He gave us the particulars a bit ago."
Saturday, June 7, 1862

"Battlefield—Mr. John Walter was at the battlefield yesterday near Boonsborough and he says such sights beat everything. Dead soldiers in heaps decomposing & horses in the same way. At one place he says he saw a pile of dead Rebels in a kind of ravine as long as the width of the street (60 feet) in layers of 3, 4, 5 heaped on each other. Already decomposed, (they were of the last Sunday’s fight already) & the stench was exceedingly offensive. In all the battles fought, `(and they have been at it nearly every day since Sunday last the 14th instant) the number of killed and wounded on both sides must have been tremendous."
Saturday, September 20, 1862

"John Walter & Frederick Kehler (constable) had a striking affair this afternoon. Kehler had process against Walter on dog taxes. When he refused to pay & Walter having his dander raised struck Kehler with a hammer. Did not injure him much."
Tuesday, March 15, 1864

"Mr. John Walter (our neighbor opposite the city hall) told me today that he arrived at New York from “Ipsheim” (his place of nativity) Germany on the “18th of August 1845” in the ship “Agnes” from Bremen. Came to Frederick Maryland, September 3, 1845."
Wednesday, March 7, 1866

​I was disappointed that I couldn’t find any of Mr. Walter’s advertisements for his junk business from any old newspapers. I’m assuming junkyards, junk warehouses and the like did not do a great deal of marketing. I did find locations for two former sites of his business. They appear on Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These atlas maps were created to assist fire and rescue units with understanding the layout of businesses and dwellings in town. In 1887, John Walter’s junkyard could be found on the former West Alley between W. Fourth and W. Fifth streets. This thoroughfare is known as Klinehart’s Alley today, and a few ruins and remnants of the old brick support buildings can be found. The site hosted a soap factory as well.

​Within a few years, I learned that Mr. Walter apparently relinquished this property to John F. Baumgartner. In a January, 2020 edition of Preservation Matters, City of Frederick historic planner Christian Martinkosky writes:
​
“Perhaps the most notable site was a multifaceted business operated by John F. Baumgardner, a German immigrant. It was between Fourth and Fifth streets, adjacent to a slaughterhouse. Baumgardner likely relied on locally sourced animal products to make fine soaps and phosphates, in addition to running a junkyard.”

​We wrote about Mr. Baumgardner, and his son Harry, in a “Story in Stone” back in 2021 as they were very successful in both the junk business, and, more so, the meat processing and retail business. These operations including the junk yard and soap-works, with the addition of a slaughterhouse plant, gave labor to local Blacks living in the immediate vicinity along West Alley as one can see several property clusters on the Sanborn Map labeled simply as “Negro Dwellings.”

Christina Martinkosky, in her article, references the housing plight and relocation of these residents, decades later through government housing projects:

“The mid-20th century brought great change to Klinehart’s Alley. Driven by urban renewal projects, homes along the alley between Fifth and Seventh streets were cleared out. In 1942, the Roger Brooke Taney Apartments were constructed. This community was made up of eight large housing units holding 68 apartments to accommodate low-income white families. A second development, known as the John Hanson Homes, cleared another section of the historically black neighborhood in 1959. These developments have since been demolished and replaced with new homes. Today, only traces of the former neighborhood can be detected, including remnants of Baumgardner’s business.”

John Walter moved to another location as the town was certainly big enough to support two junkyards. This was a pre-existing junkyard on E. Third Street next to the Ruprecht family’s mattress manufactory, and near the cross street of Middle Alley—then known as Locust Alley. The new Walter family business location can be found on the subsequent 1892 Sanborn Map drawn and published for Frederick City.

​And speaking of family businesses, John’s wife, Elizabeth, was a milliner—a maker of women’s hats. I also stumbled upon a listing of a school being taught in the family home on N. Market Street. But just where was this home? I read that he owned some homes on East Third and could have lived or had business on North Market St. Locust Alley properties once in his portfolio are now part of the Maxwell Square Condominiums. Locust Alley is now called Maxwell Avenue.

​John and his wife lived at what is now 129 N. Market Street. This is known as the River Bar & Grill today. The year before his death, Mr. Walter sold his house to his daughter Florence (1904), retaining the right to "use, occupy and enjoy" the room which he used as a bedroom. Florence, like her mother, was a milliner and ran her business out of the home. Interestingly, Elizabeth (Lewis) Peters, who we also once wrote about in conjunction to Miss Bird Smith's re-interment in Mount Olivet bought this building from Florence (Walter) Snyder's heirs in 1970 and owned it until 1973.

​All of John Walter's other properties, on E. 3rd Street and on Locust Alley, were sold at public sale after his death, by William P. Maulsby, trustee. The house at 27 E. 3rd Steet was sold to Edward Walter and his sister Florence (Walter) Snyder, while the remaining properties were sold to Lewis Walter. He apparently mortgaged them in 1908 but then they were advertised for public sale by the mortgagee in 1916.

In researching the deeds, I found that John Walter's youngest daughter Bertha was married to a Mitchell Daniels (oculist from Vermont) from 1890 until his death in 1902, then to a James Fillmore Eldridge from 1904 until his death in 1908. Interestingly, Bertha Eldridge served as a milliner in Thurmont, as this article from the Catoctin Clarion of 7 Sept 1905 shows:

​Mrs. Walter died in 1902 and her obituary was quite lengthy. At some point, we will tackle the story of her parents, particularly her father Frederick Pampel, creator of the Pampel Foundry that once stood on the southwest corner of W. South Street and Broadway Avenue.

​I found several mentions of John Walter in local newspapers, but none greater than this obituary which added a few interesting details to the biography found in Williams’ History of Frederick County. It appeared in the October 27th, 1905 issue of the Frederick News, while also appearing in the Baltimore Sun.

​I could not find any information on the installation of the Walter monument on the site, but I’d bet that it went up in the immediate years after Elizabeth’s death and before John’s death (ie: 1903, 1904 or 1905). Other family members buried here in the Walter plot include infant children Cassandra and John, along with Charles G. Walter (d. 1897), Lewis C. Walter (d. 1923), and Katie Elizabeth Walter (d. 1881). Florence (Walter) Snyder is buried in the adjoining plot.

Happy Labor Day....and all of that junk!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This cover photograph at the top of this story is not a Frederick scene. It was taken by photographer Joe Clark in 1939 and is part of the collection entitled: Clark Family Photography Collection and was provided by the UNT Libraries Special Collections to The Portal to Texas History, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries. If you have any photos of the former junkyard/scrapyard or warehouse sites connecting to John Walter or his family, please contact me as we'd love to include them with this story.

​Earlier this summer, I was pecking along on the internet, preparing for teaching one of my “Frederick History 201” classes. I wanted to learn a little more detail regarding the history of the Frederick County Courthouse. In particular, I was seeking information on the structure’s architecture and builder by the name of Henry McCleery.

In saying this, I need to make a few clarifications to assist you in figuring out which building  and geographic location I am referring to here. First off, I am talking about the second (of four) courthouses that Frederick County has witnessed being built, and utilized, since the 1750s. The greater locale is within the heart of historic downtown Frederick City.

The particular courthouse in question, and pictured at the top of the story, no longer stands. If it had a gravestone, it would read 1785-1861. We do have its 1862 replacement, but that building is not our present courthouse (#4), which is located on the northwest corner of West Patrick and North Court streets and built in 1982.

​​We are fortunate to still possess former courthouse (#3) —another example of Frederick's many "adaptive reuse" success stories. Today, this building of Italianate design is in its fifth decade of service as Frederick City Hall and like its predecessor (courthouse #2) is positioned within Court House Square, often called "Court Square" for short. This "public yard" has served as Frederick's  village common, or green, far longer than Baker Park and is sandwiched in between Council and West Church streets to the north and south respectively, and North Court and Record streets to the east and west.

So what happened to Frederick's second county courthouse? Well, it burned down in 1861 in the early days of the American Civil War. Some say it could have been an accident, and others say it was arson and an early victim of political protest. Either way, Henry McCleery’s Georgian style masterpiece left us shortly after its 75th anniversary. If anything else, it was certainly more durable and accommodating than our first courthouse, while helping to launch the legal careers of many men of mark including Roger Brooke Taney and Francis Scott Key.

In case you were curious, the first Frederick County Courthouse was built in this same Court Square vicinity after our county's founding in 1748. The Maryland General Assembly ordered that Frederick be the site of the county seat.  On a chosen location on the northwest side of the fledgling village, land would be obtained for the purpose. The order stated:

“That the said three Acres shall be laid out in an exact Square, and staked and well bounded, and that the Courthouse aforesaid shall be built in the Centre of the same Square, and that the Prison or Prisons for the same County shall be built on the South Side of the same Square.”

​Construction began in 1750 but was delayed for some time thanks in part to the French & Indian War which led to the confiscation of workers’ wagons for the war effort among other things. Talk about your supply chain issues! Anyway, the project would eventually be completed in 1756 and hosted the legendary Stamp Act Repudiation less than a decade later in November, 1765. Court Square would be the site of a large mock funeral for "the recently expired" Stamp Act, a satiric protest put on by our local “chapter” of the Sons of Liberty.

​Frederick Town continued to attract a number of talented attorneys and legal minds to work in its courts including Revolutionary War patriots Thomas Johnson, Jr. and John Hanson. The county’s growth naturally necessitated a new courthouse be built, one that could properly accommodate the needs of court business. At the same time, historic records show that the first courthouse and jail (Gaol) were in a shabby state of deterioration. The year was 1785, and that is when the fore-mentioned Henry McCleery enters our story:

“Whereas the Justices and sundry Inhabitants of Frederick County by their petition to the General Assembly have represented, that the Court House and Gaol are at present in a very impaired State—That the former is so much out of repair, that the public papers and Records are not only exposed to be purloined and taken out of the office above Stairs, but to be damaged and defaced by every driving rain and Snow that may happen by penetrating into the Office among the said Records and papers, that the Walls of the said Court House are giving away being Cracked and Chasms made from the foundation to the roof thereof that the Gaol is likewise in a very decayed State and will be insufficient with all the repairs that can be given to secure Criminals.” (Laws, Liber T.B.H. No. A, pp. 46.r)-66, Ms)

Historian Thomas J. Scharf adds to the story in his commentary on the building of the second courthouse in his History of Western Maryland (published in 1882):

“The members of the General Assembly heard this cry of distress and thereupon empowered the justices of the county to levy up to £2,000 current money. They were also granted permission to sell whatever materials in the old courthouse which could not be used in the new building and to add the proceeds to the building fund. By 1787, the outside of the new courthouse was finished, but the interior was not ready and as is usual in these cases, the money had all been expended. It was necessary, therefore, to return to the General Assembly with a second plea, this time for £750 current money. An act authorizing this further levy was passed at the April Session, 1787.

Although it was apparently not finished at the time, the court began sitting in the new courthouse in March 1787. From the time of the razing of the old, and the completion or near completion of the new, courthouse, quarters were secured for the court in the house of Mrs. Rebecca Owen, for which she was allowed thirteen pounds and fifteen shillings at the November Term of 1786.”

The court had appointed a building commission on April 8th, 1785 to supervise the building, and apparently it was this body that employed our subject, Henry McCleery. This man was described by former Court Square resident, historian, politician and international statesman, Charles McCurdy “Mac” Mathias (1922-2010) as "Frederick's little known but highly talented architect” in an article written about his childhood home in the 1950s.

​So back to my innocent Google journey from last June. I stumbled upon a particularly evocative entry within search engine results for “McCleery architect” on a site called www.Biblio.com, a privately owned international online marketplace specializing in rare and collectible books. My find was for an online sale entry for actual work books and ledgers belonging to Henry McCleery and his family. These were  billed as “manuscripts having enormous research value, containing, as they do, a copious amount of first hand information about the architectural and building history of Frederick spanning fifty years, 1790-1840.”

Now I had seen references before to some of the McCleery family papers. These reside in repositories such as the Maryland State Historical Society in Baltimore and the Hall of Records in Annapolis. I also have seen that some McCleery papers and sketches are located at the prestigious Winterthur Museum in northern Delaware. 

My attention was certainly gotten in reading the sale's very detailed description. Here’s just the opening stanza:

“OVER 1100 PAGES OF MANUSCRIPT CONSTRUCTION RECORDS AND ACCOUNTS IN THIRTEEN FOLIO VOLUMES OF AN IMPORTANT FREDERICK, MARYLAND, 18th/19th CENTURY IRISH IMMIGRANT ARCHITECT AND MASTER BUILDER, INCLUDING THOSE OF HIS SONS, WHO WERE HIS BUSINESS PARTNERS AND SUCCESSORS, KEPT OVER A PERIOD OF FIFTY YEARS, 1790-1840
BOOK #1. McCLEERY, Henry (1749-1819), Irish-American architect and master builder in Frederick, Maryland, who built most of Frederick's significant structures in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Tall folio ledger book, original flexible boards (worn & soiled), signed on front cover: "Henry McCleery/ his Book/ 1790 January 1st," then again, "Henry McCleery His Book," with dates "1790/1791/1792/1793," and "Alegheny Lotts in this Book 1790 page 20"; over 320 pages of manuscript in 4 sections, crudely side-sewn and bound as one, ca. pp. [76] + [76] + [80] + [90], each section with alphabetical list of clients/customers + 12 simple original sketch plans of buildings with dimensions, written on laid paper with ProPatria watermark. Frederick, Maryland, this volume, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, [1796, 1814-1815, 1821]: Additional volumes described below covering the years 1794, 1800, 1810, 1811, 1821-30, 1830, 1831, 1834-40, 1836, 1840. Thirteen volumes of bound manuscript, tall folios, approximately 1100 pp. Condition is generally used, as would be expected, but very good, as described for each volume. An extraordinary collection of manuscript account books delineating an early American architectural and construction business conducted by Henry McCleery.”

​This listing contained a treasure-trove of local history! But, alas, my find was nothing more than “a ghost page” as the sale had already been completed by an independent firm by in Sheffield, Massachusetts by the name of Howard S. Mott, Inc. The company is a collector/reseller specializing in early Americana, historical books and magazines, autograph letters, etc. I could find no corresponding date, or any info on the seller, buyer or successful bid. Where are these books residing today?  

I surely hope that these invaluable workbooks made their way back to Frederick, or at least Maryland. If not, maybe they are in the possession of a caring family member or property owner. Odds are they are now owned by a museum or architectural history fan who appreciates their magnificent importance. And if the buyer ever reads this humble blog in the future, please consider sending our Heritage Frederick (the former Historical Society of Frederick County) a copy of the books to help us understand the McCleery built structures, and family, a bit better. No one appreciates their history and historic buildings like Frederick with our much-heralded, 50-block Downtown Frederick Historic District.

​So, just who is Henry McCleery? Well, in addition to giving Frederick some pretty amazing edifices, he also is responsible for even more descendants, with plenty buried here in Mount Olivet Cemetery including himself.

​In 1778, Henry McCleery bought a 39'x 83' lot fronting on Market Street from Charles Beatty, next to the north side of the "Market House", where he apparently had his house, and later bought several adjoining properties as well as other properties in and near Frederick. Of course, the Market House property was enlarged, later in 1874 when the opera house was built, so the location of Henry's house is where the northern section of Brewers Alley now is. This house stayed in the family until 1855, although after 1841 it was occupied by William Beall (whose sister Rebecca had married Robert McCleery).
 
Henry McCleery's will was proved in 1820, leaving everything to his three sons equally including several lots in Frederick and his old construction shop which once fronted on East Second Street, just west of the alley that takes one to Market Space. This was said to be the lot east of his mother-in-law's house (Mary Ritchie) and across the alley from the Old Lutheran Graveyard behind the Evangelical Lutheran Church. The Schaeffer Center occupies the majority of the old graveyard today. Interestingly, this location of the McCleery workshop was near the site of the Tory Gaol during the Revolutionary War. 

​Buildings of Frederick attributed to McCleery are plenty with his main achievement being the second county courthouse (1785). It was reportedly designed using the Court of Assizes in Dublin, Ireland as a model. Other construction marvels that still stand include the second All Saint's Episcopal Church (1813) on North Court Street and the Frederick Presbyterian Church (1825) on West Second Street. In some accounts, he is revered for designing and building the famed steeple atop Trinity Chapel which would serve home to the town clock built by Frederick Heisley. This is usually attributed to Stephen Steiner, as are the twin spires of the fore-mentioned Evangelical Lutheran, but this could have been McCleery's design or handiwork in partnering with Steiner.

​Henry McCleery was also responsible for producing numerous other taverns and houses here. The former Potts House on the corner of North Court and West Church streets was built by Henry McCleery after being designed by the noted architect Robert Mills who is responsible for many early government buildings of Washington, D.C.

The sale description states that “there are four pages detailing work accomplished in 1821 for the Committee of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Henry McCleery's manuscripts, with voluminous additions by his sons after his death, provide a wealth of previously unknown information about the flourishing business conducted by these architect/master builders, all regarding properties and businesses they served in Frederick County, as well as some in Georgetown. The initial accounts/records are carried over from a previous "folio," whereabouts, if extant, unknown to us. These thirteen volumes containing more than 1100 pages offer an extraordinary amount of descriptive accounting information about the business activities of McCleery and his sons, with names of their many customers, with all jobs priced and described as completed for some of the most distinguished personages of late 18th and early 19th century Frederick.”

I couldn’t garner a great deal of information on the man himself, as most information accompanies histories pertaining to his children and later descendants. Henry McCleery was born in 1749, in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. His father was Andrew McCleery, (1724-1794) and his mother, Martha E Rea (1724-1813). Henry arrived in America in the late 1760s and would marry Martha Ritchie (b. August 5th, 1755) in 1768. Martha was the daughter of William Ritchie (1726-1765) and Mary Beatty Middagh (1732-1818). The union produced nine known children: four sons (Henry, Andrew, Robert, and William) and five daughters (Mary (Knight) (1779-1820) , Zeruiah (Knox) (1783-1839), Susanna (McLanahan) (1786-1848), Frances (Beall) (1791-1852), and Cairissa.

​I learned that Henry worked his early years in Frederick as a house carpenter and joiner, as listed in some of the early deeds. He is said to have produced the upright cases for grandfather clocks made by John Fessler. I read that he very likely paid someone to take his place in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. His service is noted as making coffins for deceased soldiers. Of course he would be tasked with designing Frederick’s court house just after the end of the conflict that gave him and his countrymen their independence.

An article found while researching for this blog story says that an old hinge had been found on the property of the Old All Saints Burying Ground (by Carroll Creek) sometime after the cemetery’s removal to Mount Olivet in 1913. The hardware resembled that which McCleery used regularly on both the clock cases and coffins he produced. This information came from a lecture given by Joseph W. Urner, a lineal descendant of McCleery, and a fine architect and sculptor in his own right, to the Frederick County Historical Society back in 1950. We have three of this particular gentleman’s sculpted busts in Mount Olivet including those of Roger Brooke Taney, Thomas Johnson, Jr. and Dr. Amon Burgee, and he also was the sculptor of the Alabama State Monument on the Gettysburg Battlefield. Speaking of Thomas Johnson, Urner said in his talk that Henry McCleery was tasked to build a coffin for Maryland’s Revolutionary hero and first elected governor. Both men (McCleery and Johnson) died in the same year of 1819.

​Martha McCleery died on December 12th, 1815, and Henry passed on November 23rd, 1819 at the age of 70. They were both originally buried in the Old English Presbyterian burial ground that once occupied the southwest corner of the intersection between North Bentz Street and West Fourth Street where Dill Avenue begins. The contents of that burial ground were eventually moved to Mount Olivet in the latter part of the 19th century. Our records show that Henry McCleery's grandsons (Perry and Robert) had the bodies of their grandparents (along with several of Henry and Martha's children) disinterred and moved in September of 1863 to the family plot in Mount Olivet's Area H.

​Henry McCleery was undoubtedly a very wealthy man. I have reason to believe that he lived in Georgetown, District of Columbia, after the death of Martha, as this was the place he filed his will in 1818. In his will, he assigns a Georgetown home on Washington Street to son Henry, and it seems as though his eldest son is sick or debilitated and requires "maintenance." I'm thinking that Henry cared for this man, at the time in his late thirties. This same Henry, Jr. would die just a few years later in 1822. His daughter Cairissa never married, and was recipient of his primary home in Frederick Town.

Henry left his daughters large amounts of cash, and  shares in the Bank of Columbia, Farmers Bank of Maryland, Union Bank of Georgetown, and Bank of Baltimore. Other properties and building lots in Frederick were divided amongst his three younger sons as were houses and lots in D.C., along with an importing and exporting company, a shop, and a tavern in Georgetown. He also had shares in the Bank of Columbia, Farmers Bank of Maryland, Union Bank of Georgetown, and Bank of Baltimore.

​The term “Adamesque” had me recalling the John Adams miniseries that first aired on HBO well over a decade ago. In that program, a unique scene included the construction of the White House by slaves under the direction of architect James Hoban. The McCleery House in Georgetown shares many similar features with "the President's Home" and some historians have wondered if Hoban shared his knowledge in the construction of McCleery’s home. It would be interesting to see whether this was simply the architectural genius of our subject who may have influenced Hoban, or vice versa, to be used in the McCleerys’ later ventures. We will likely never know.

Slave labor and construction of this time period is often a missing part of the early building history of our country. They certainly made an important contribution to erecting countless amazing structures that began as humble drawings and designs on paper. The Biblio.com auction listing I found shares glimpses of Frederick’s African American heritage. I was fortunate to find the following in the auction entry writeup:

“Maryland being a slave state, there is much here mentioning named Negro labor, whether slave or free, we don't know, although we do know that the slave population in Frederick was substantial. Building, contracting, carpentry work of all types with different wood such as poplar, ash, chestnut, etc., building houses, making doors, paneled doors, windows, sashes, chimneys, bricks, flooring, joists, shutters, nails, stock locks, boards, scantling, rafters, gutters, etc., etc., also custom furniture making, copious numbers of coffins made to order for children and adults, with some of the more expensive versions described with details of wood, polish, fittings; some for the poor, McCleery apparently having an ongoing contract to provide coffins for those who died in the Poor House, including Negroes.

Included are many renovations, building of complete structures, the buying and selling of various types of lumber and wooden building materials. Accomplished jobs are given full treatment, with names, dates, work accomplished, giving exact accountings of materials used for each task, with prices charged. All four sections begin with a hand-lettered alphabetical index of clients names, be they personal, commercial, or county or state entities. The personal names are sometimes identified with a trade, i.e.: printer, locksmith, "comedian", blacksmith, baker, schoolmaster, butcher, mason, tailor, turner, etc., and some with military titles. Businesses or institutions include the Market House, or Frederick Town Market, of which McCleery seems to have had an official position, mentioning he collected "one Years rent of Room over Market", and "rent of stalls & shambles", signed "Henry McCleery Clerk"; "Christian Dwellings"; the State of Maryland, "federal", the County of Frederick; the Magazine; Court House [built in March 1787; those who would speak there would include John Hanson, Thomas Johnson, Francis Scott Key and Roger Brooke Taney, who appears in these records]; the Poor House [built in 1820, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places]; Lutheran Church, etc.

The initial 52 pages of the first section (1790) have been re-purposed with a child's pen-trials, school writings, notes, scribbles, math sums and writing-over the previous ledger information, most of which is still legible; thankfully the young scholar used blank areas of this section for his or her efforts [probably a young McCleery]. There are about a dozen pinned-in, laid-in, or loose pages of business and personal writings, including materials lists, costs; drawings, plans of buildings and calculation notes. Work for Frederick County included building steps for the Record Room, making doors, benches and tables, a "Pilory (sic) of Locust with Band," and ladder; hanging and leading windows. McCleery also notes his service as a Juror for 5 days, as well as valuing and "laying off", i.e. surveying, properties. Work for Frederick County in 1791 included such things as "new timbers & covering for the South Bridge in Frederick Town…" as well as construction details for the Poor House, ongoing through the years with intermediary David Leavy (or Levy) who often appears in the records as a customer, and whose house (or tavern) McCleery designed and built.

Another notable project was work done on the Market House for butchers, and for various other identified business stalls and their amenities. Occasional bartering is evident, such as using Col. Johnson's "negro" for a project for money and labor trade; to the butcher for a "clock case wild cherry wood to pay on the halph [sic] in cash in 2 weeks and the remainder in truff and tallow…"; and exchanging carpentry work for blacksmithing or masonry. McCleery makes mention of "My own house on 2d Street 48 perches in sellar…By 39,000 Brick laying…", and the Baptist Meeting House."

McCleery’s work on the Market House, today’s site of Brewer’s Alley Restaurant on North Market Street, helped me put the following article in better context. Ironically, this building would be Frederick’s very first City Hall as Mr. McCleery made a lasting contribution to not only Frederick’s beautiful historic skyline, but to the residential, commercial and governmental lifeblood of the community he made his home after emigration.

I know I’m simply sharing facsimile text of this incredible Biblio.com auction ad, as I truly I wish I knew the locale of its original contents today. Much like unique architecture that is unfortunately razed over time, I just want to document this incredible information within this blog in case the listing gets deleted from the internet one day. That said, Henry McCleery was atop one of the most respected trades of his day. I’ve read, that during this time, architects and master masons sat at the very top of the professional pantheon—even above physicians, lawyers and politicians.

Henry McCleery had professional and personal associations with the top citizens of both our community and state. Whitman H. Ridgway, in his 2018 work Community Leadership in Maryland, 1790-1840: A Comparative Analysis of Power in Society states:

“The Frederick County decisional elite in the second party era,…numbered seventy-two men…Frederick County's decisional leaders represented the diversity of the community in contrast to the relative uniformity found in the other rural areas…” 

The men who appear in these McCleery manuscripts include Roderick Dorsey, Colonel John McPherson, Dr. Thomas W. Johnson, Richard Potts, Jr., William M. Beall, Jr., etc. The auction ad for McCleery’s manuscripts and workbooks list accounts that “cover his work for just over 100 different named clients in the first volume, and many more in the later volumes, many of whom have multiple entries during the years covered. There are a great many prominent names listed, including a number of patriots who participated in the Revotutionary War, and important politicians, lawyers, judges, prominent members of the Frederick County community, or trades people such as John Adlum, one of several Frederick patriots of the same family with the same name; Col. Baker Johnson (1747-1811), lawyer and Revolutionary War battalion commander who fought at the 1777 Battle of Paoli in the brigade of his brother, Col. James Johnson. He eventually ran Catoctin Furnace in the early 1800's from his manor house named Auburn, which still stands: several long entries, one for August 12th to September, a full-page for work on 4 floors, fully described; the entry for January 6, 1791 is a full-page accounting of work for Baker Johnson, and another August 12th 1791, and more, including a "coffin for your child hing'd and polished shambles."

Here is more of a description of the individuals McCleery did work for according to the Biblio.com auction listing:

[Charles] McGragh [i.e. McGrath], "Comedian." McGrath, "the American Tate Wilkinson of that epoch" pirated the comedy The Contrast, the first play by an American to be professionally staged, and played it at Elizabeth-Town (Hagerstown) as early as April 13, 1791, after it had played Frederick, Georgetown, Alexandria, etc. The entry for August 10, 1791, shows McGrath was in Frederick, and paid for "170 feet of boards….1000 12 penny nails…to doing the Seattes…150 Spridgs (springs) for making Doors." This leads us to believe it is possible McGrath was outfitting the semblance of an unkown theatre in Frederick, and not having work done on a dwelling; Col. William Deakins, a Georgetown merchant in the tobacco trade; Col. Thomas Deakins, Revolutionary War officer, surveyor of the Maryland-West Virginia "Deakins" boundary line; John Graham (d. 1833), president of the Frederick County Savings Bank; Catherine Kimball, (1745-1831), many entries for this tavern owner of "the highest-caliber establishment of its kind in Frederick (once frequented by George Washington); Rev. Stephen B[loomer] Balch (1747-1833), Presbyterian minister and educator in Georgetown who graduated from Princeton and served in the Revolutionary War. He founded the second church in Georgetown, the Georgetown Presbyterian Church, often traveled the 40 miles to preach in Frederick where he founded the English Presbyterian Church; Richard Potts (1753-1808), whose house is now part of an architectural walking tour of Frederick, was a politician, U. S. Attorney for Maryland appointed by George Washington, jurist, military aide to the governor of Maryland, Thomas Johnson, with the Maryland line at Valley Forge in 1777, U.S. Representative, U. S. Senator."

​"More work was done by the McCleery family firm in designing and building bridges in town and in the county. Pertaining to a  John Winter, printer in Frederick 1791-1800, there exist three entries, the last for "a Wallnut coffin rais'd lid for a Child.” Thomas Johnson, Jr. was a client and Col. John McPherson (abt. 1760-1829), employed McCleery for an extensive amount of work as you may recall that this wealthy citizen built the large townhomes on Council Street known today as the Ross and Mathias mansions. The auction listing rattles off more luminaries of Maryland and Frederick’s past:

Joshua Dorsey (1752-1814), lawyer, sat at one time in the Maryland House of Delegates: 4 1/2 pp. of specs giving a complete description of his new 33 x 35 foot house, three floors and roof; a number of lengthy entries for David Levy [also spelled Leavy by McCleery] (1741-1804), Revolutionary soldier, tavern owner on Patrick Street. With extensive construction account & rough sketches of plans for him, October, 1792 (with Scott, see below); George Murdock, trustee of Frederick College); a number of entries for Isaac Mantz (1759-1826), commissioner of roads; William M[urdock] Beall (1742-1823), Frederick judge, landowner, slave holder; John Ross Key (1754-1821), general officer in the Continental Army, lawyer, judge, father of Francis Scott Key; Abner Ritchie, land speculator; William Ritchie, Clerk of the Frederick County Court, 1779 until 1815; [Henry McCleery married Martha Ritchie, and there are several other Ritchie men named here]; George Scott (before 1742-after 1793), Sheriff of Frederick County (1766-1768), "George Scott Esqr. April 20th 1793, with rough sketch plan and itemization, for large structure "to Joyn to Mr. Leavys house/to Jas. Beatty"; Col. William Beatty, Revolutionary War officer; Benjamin Ogle (1749-1809), George Washington's friend, governor of Maryland (1798-1801). It was he who issued a proclamation after Washington's death setting aside February 11th as a day of mourning, beginning what would become a national precedent; Henry Brothers, tavern owner, with a sketch plan for his house on the corner of today’s West Patrick and South Court streets where the current Frederick Courthouse stands today. Col. Thomas Price (1722-1795), pronounced against the Stamp Act, Revolutionary War officer and later one of the justices of the Frederick County Court; Mountjoy Bayly (1754-1836), Revolutionary War general, large land owner; John Parks (1738-1812), tea merchant; extensive work from May, 1792 to November of that year; and others who served in various Maryland and Pennsylvania military companies, according to Archives of Maryland Records of Maryland Troops Serving in the Continental Service During the War of American Revolution, 1775-1783.

At the end of this first volume there is an undated half-page "Memorandum of an agreement made between Abraham Haff [Jr.] (1769-1813) and Henry McCleery that said Abraham Haff doth engage to deliver scantling of poplar and ash for a house to be built for Benjamin Ogle early next Spring [and seven more lines specifying deliver dates and payment], signed by Haff and McCleery, and witnessed by Susanna Johnson, followed by three more full pages about the projected house, "Mr. Benjamin Ogle's house 31 feet front by 44.'"

I wrote about Abraham Haff in one of these “Stories in Stone” a few years back as he was a prominent member of Frederick's Presbyterian Church to which the McCleery family belonged. Presbyterian minister, Rev. Samuel Knox, served as the first schoolmaster of the Frederick Academy and married Henry McCleery’s daughter Zeruiah. The graves of both can be found in the McCleery family lot in Mount Olivet’s Area H/Lot 357.

​The Mott sale listing states that McCleery had accounts with a number of Frederick women:

“specifying aspects of home-building for the Mrs. Burnes, Cary, Mary Ritchie, Davison, Dyer, Charlton, Cazlister, Catherine Kimball, etc. Also noted are purchases for business: tools, wheelbarrows, hatchets; as well as personal items such as newspapers, coffee, barrels of herring, rum, cloth of various types, "2 tickets in the Washington City Lottery at 7 Dollars ea." Notes are meticulously kept, accounting for labor for himself and working crew, as well as Negro workers who have been lent to him: "…14 Days of your Negros attending masons at my house."

Well if you are still with me, the listing was more like a "history roller-coaster" with non-stop thrilling twists and turns for the Frederick history geek like myself. Coming around the final stretch, highlights of more material within the collection’s next six volumes is highlighted with names very familiar to Frederick and Mount Olivet Cemetery, including my very own. I will explain in a moment!

“Miscellaneous material: A laid-in note from Abner Ritchie requesting his cousin, builder Andrew McCleery, to help a poor man and wife whose daughter had fractured her leg: "…the parents living poor & having but few of the conveniences of life need assistance…the loan of your cot, for the girl to lie on...Dr. Shields & myself have just reduced it…" Dated 1814, repurposing blank pages is a billing summary of 5pp. of a "Bill of Scantling for Joshua Dorsey Esq." which includes small crude drawings of building component details, as well as a side view, side measurements and height plan. Also given are floor by floor details of joist, lath-work, rafters, windows and trim for the project, which is typical throughout the whole book. A further page details a list of "Stuff of ours taken for Dorsey's house" including various timber, nails, planking, chimney pieces and the "costing up" for all. There is also an amusing 27-line piece from December 1814, in which McCleery's describes his and Mr Beall's naiveté regarding buying a horse as they have sold their Chestnut sorrel. "We came to the conclusion last night to get Mr. McLanahan to purchase for us, he being a good judge. We wish him not to go over 100$...The qualities that we would wish him to possess is gentleness & fitness for the Harness…he is intended for our gig…Mr. Beall & myself are both afraid to make the purchase for fear some broken winded or hipshodden animal might be palmed upon us."

The volumes are well used, as is to be expected, but the contents are very legible. In our nearly 50 years of experience, we have never seen anything remotely resembling such a collection of these 18th and early 19th century American architect/builder's records.

VOLUMES 2-13. BOOK #2. McCLEERY, Henry, architect and master builder. Manuscript ledger for the year 1794. Tall folio, unbound, stitching broken, pp. [58]. Frederick, Maryland, January 1st to end of December, 1794. Two leaves, folios 22 and 23, excised. Index from letters Q to Z present here, others preceding excised.

There are 4 pp. of construction and carpentry records for building tavern owner Henry Brothers "new house;" payment made for 1000 acres of land in Kentucky, and for a building lot in George Town; 4 pp. of records for building a house for Benjamin Ogle, "39 by 28 ft. Inside;" 3 pp. on construction work for David Levy; carpentry for Arthur Shaaff Esq. [Frederick lawyer; Francis Scott Key's cousin]; construction and iron work for William Potts; the same for Richard Potts & Andrew Loe; an 11 ft long sign for Christian Rye; work for John McPherson; renting rooms, stalls to butchers; work for Isaac Mantz, George Murdock; State of Maryland; Snider School; buying boards, ending with "Mr. William. Was bound about May for 3 ½ years. I am to pay him £4 year 1795 & £4 year 96 & £4 the time of being free."

BOOK #3. McCLEERY, Henry, architect and master builder. Manuscript ledger for the year 1800. Tall folio, original drab flexible boards, pp. 60, with Index of names, partly covered by newspaper articles and ephemera in a few places. Frederick, Maryland, January to December, 1800. Similar to previous volume with work done for Mantz, Ritchie, Levy, Mountjoy Bayly; 4 full pages for painting carpentry, etc., for Mary Ritchie; 3 full pages for work for Catherine Kimball; the Market House; Col. Baker Johnson, Hugh Reynolds; the Court House; John McPherson. 7 sketches of structures; numerical figures; 2 pages for "Mrs. M[ary] Ritchie's house to be built 2 stories; a house in George Town for Nicholas Hodges on Lot. #9; work on a structure for General Mountjoy Bayly. Somewhat soiled and stained, but very legible. Includes work for Roger Brooke Taney.

BOOK #4. McCLEERY, Henry, architect and master builder. Manuscript ledger for the year 1810. Tall folio, original drab flexible boards (worn), pp. 80, with Index of names. Frederick, Maryland, 1810. Bank information; blacks (presumably slaves) cutting wood; half page for Roger B, Taney for glass, glazing, locks, curtain rods, mending table, etc., as well as a full page on leaf 64 for Taney; the usual work as described previously for members of the Potts, Ritchie, Mantz, McPherson families, and others. Included is Dr. Philip Thomas (1747-1815), a very important Frederick patriot/physician. See, Chris Haugh's long article, Frederick's Physician-Patriot of '76, re: Mount Olivet Cemetery; Lutheran Church; extensive work for Mrs. Lowe's house; Barracks & Arsenal; with 2 wallpaper samples laid in.

That’s right, "Chris Haugh’s long article" on Dr. Philip Thomas, however it pales in comparison to this story and a magnificent auction listing. Nice advertising for me though, thank you! 

BOOK #5. McCLEERY, Henry, architect and master builder. Manuscript ledger for the year 1811. Tall folio, original drab flexible boards (worn), pp. 14. Frederick, Maryland, 1811. 2pp. for "Barracks Account" with two small sketches; purchase of Lot #5 in George Town for Major A. Ritchie; books lent; 3 full pages about building Joab Hunt's three-story house. Volume in rough condition.

Alright, I'm stopping here! What an amazing discovery, one of many I have stumbled upon while writing this blog. Henry’s children did great things as well, and the auction collection also includes workbooks and manuscripts in the hands of Andrew and Robert. I will include that latter part of the listing write-up at the conclusion of this story because I am literally spent from writing this story about Frederick’s original architect extraordinaire. I will leave you with an 1840s portrait of the second county courthouse by artist John J. Markell, and the McCleery's surviving masterpiece on North Court Street of the second All Saints' Episcopal Church. 

​Henry McCleery’s sons Andrew, Robert and Henry, Jr., are buried in Mount Olivet. Robert is in the greater family plot in Area H, but Henry Jr. is in an unmarked grave within the re-interred bodies from the Old Presbyterian Church and located in Area NN. Daughters of Henry buried here include the previously mentioned Zeruiah Knox, Susanna McLanahan, and Frances Beall.

​If you locate the whereabouts of this McCleery collection of workbooks and manuscripts, please let us know! It’s a window on Frederick’s past like no other, and worth its weight in pure gold. Kudos to the research team at Howard S. Mott, Inc. for their insightful and detailed effort and research, and thanks for helping to educate me so I could tell a much better “Story in Stone” of one of Mount Olivets’s many precious eternal residents.

​ADDENDUM
The following is the Biblio.com sale description of books 6-13 in the collection offered by Howard S. Mott, Inc. These all come after Henry's death and pertain to the business dealings of his sons.

BOOK #6. McCLEERY, Andrew (1777-1853), Robert (1788-1840), and William R. McCleery (1794-1848), master builders. Tall folio manuscript ledger, disbound, pp. 80. Georgetown and Frederick, Maryland, 1824-1830.

Partly a business ledger; a travel-log; a record of draft legal documents and agreements, especially concerning the leasing of tavern properties in Georgetown for periods of one to three years, with several draft agreements with lessors, covering bake ovens, sheds, stairs, etc.; the business situated on H St., Georgetown, etc.; leases for rooms in Storehouse on the corner of Market Street. Andrew describes a visit: "…Georgetown appeared to look better than on previous visits. They were painting & repairing every thing formerly seemed going to ruin, renting did not seem to be quite so bad. The City improves considerably, but that seemed to fluctuate from one part to another, places that used to be lively quite dull & houses tenantless other parts that had been dull busy & improving….[closing with accounts of banks there]; banking and investment, personal and family information, including: cash accounting ledger, acting as a diary of business activities; travel expenses, wages, rentals, mortgage, fee collection, money-lending, real estate, and auction purchases of land, household goods, clothing, shoes and on several occasions, books, with titles given, and other material, such as considerable tinware, with prices paid. Charitable contributions include Robert Wait at College Hill, DC (eventual co-founder of Wake Institute, which later became Wake Forest University).

Mountain land; vast quantities of wood delivered to McCleery by Frederick Kleinhart; land called "Puzzlesome Corrected."

At the back, in ledger form, is a record of banking at various named institutions during 1823. They include Hagerstown Bank; Bank of Westminster; Bank of Columbia; and Frederick County Bank, giving a good account of the family's financials. Also in the same section are drafts, or copies of legal documents, for deposits made on the Baltimore branch of the Bank of the United States.

One full page, November 2, 1827 to April 19, 1828 is devoted to "Negro Bob." "Negro Bob commenced work at $6 per Month…Novb. 29. Bob lost one day only cut a little wood. 30th. Bob lost one day did nothing at all got his shoes mended. Dec. 17th. Bob lost ½ day did nothing at all said he wanted to get his shoes mended…Feb 7th. Lost one day says he will work in the holiday to make up," etc.

​Entries from July 29 to September 9, 1825, comprise four (4) full pages of a ca. 300-word "Journal of Expenses to New York & Saratoga [and return]," enumerating running totals for a round trip costing $68.97. Steamboats, ferries; lodging at taverns, with their owner's names; crackers; cakes and beer; toll bridges; barbering (several times); "segars;" oysters; "Museum" in Philadelphia; "three glasses lemonade cream of tartar;" "hats for boys;" Sunday, August 10th "Three times at Presbyterian Church; six hymn books; washing; cantaloupes; apples; tobacco; music, etc., etc. A simple entry for Tuesday, August 25th: "William left Saratoga for the West." "William" would be Andrew's brother, who left for Brookville, Indiana, to help their sister, Mary McCleery Knight (1779-1820) build a tavern after her husband died. William didn't return to Frederick, instead he got married in Brookville, and resided there.

BOOK #7. McCLEERY, Andrew (1777-1853) and Robert (1788-1840), master builders. Manuscript ledger for the year 1830. Tall folio, original drab flexible boards, pp. 73, including 3-page Index, with a copious number of names; [leaves 12-19, half of 22, 23-25 & 27 excised]. Frederick, Maryland, 1830.

One hundred and fifty-five entries in the Index, including 12 who are termed "colour'd man," with their names, one of whom was "Romia (Mr. Taney's man),"-Taney didn't own slaves; and two who are termed "colour'd woman." November 22nd, the 23rd and 27th lists charges to William Ogden Niles, printer of the Frederick Town Herald—"Mr. Niles (printer). To putting up a press…To 216 nails for ditto. To making a cherry frame for a roler (sic) for press. To making a box of pigeon holes, carried to book 1831 page 7" [where it is to be found; see ledger #8]. Quantites of hay, molasses, candles, planks, cords of wood sold; rent of Stone House to a number of named Germans; carpentry work, etc.

BOOK #8. McCLEERY, Andrew and Robert, master builders. Manuscript ledger for the year 1831. Tall folio, original drab flexible boards, pp. 120 [5 preliminary leaves excised, as well as leaves 12, 54 & 60]. Frederick, Maryland, 1831.

Builds a coffin for the famous tavern owner, Catherine Kimball; "Mr. Niles' paper the [Frederick Town] Herald commenced the 11th day of Octr. 1830 when [printer] Mr. J. P. Thompson transferred;" John P. Thompson, "the richest printer in Frederick County, was president of the Frederick County Bank."-John Thomas Scharf, The History of Western Maryland: Being a History of Frederick…(1968 edition), p. 537. "June 24th-Friday (Markly (sic) hung to-day)." John Markley murdered, December 29 and 30, 1830, six persons, including two children. Lists many rents to Germans; sales of planks, straw, manure, molasses, carpentry work done; house construction for John P. Thompson, printer, Director, with Roger B. Taney, of The Frederick National County Bank, then it's president in 1833; Negro hire; construction for the Farmers & Mechanics Bank of Frederick; May 26th "Little Black Boy came to work on Monday (Milly Brown's son)…"; bank certificate with sketches; etc.

At the end are seven pages of closely written recipes (several thousand words) for varnish, black varnish, making a drier for painting, to destroy insects in trees, to make punkin oil, polishing furniture, strengthen vinegar, to distill tar, make cement for rock-work, wood cement for coppersmiths, cement for glass-grinders, crop planting ideas, construction and craft techniques; the last two leaves with six examples of decorative scroll work; the last leaf with "Memorandum of Books Lent," etc., etc., etc.

BOOK #9. McCLEERY, Andrew and Robert, master builders. Manuscript ledger for the years 1833-1840. Tall folio, original drab flexible boards, pp. 80. Frederick, Maryland, 1833-1840. Kept over several a period of years as a memorandum/diary.

Many workers mentioned with first names only, presumably Negroes; i.e. ploughing gardens, hauling quantities of manure and hay "to turnpike;" legal contract to buy Capt. Henry Steiner's land called "Tasker's Chance" (now a neighborhood of Frederick City); a copy of a letter threatening Robert McCleery's "own personal welfare" if he does not "discontinue the Protestant [an unrecorded periodical] and ease corrupting the Public mind…P. S. You are an old offender. The Church has therefore marked you on the blacklist…;" "Mr. Schultz had about 20 hands in Mrs. Steiners lot", presumably colored laborers; eviction notices, which is a recurring theme; land surveys; real estate sales; legal notices; indentures; rent figures; sketches of plot plans; sawing rail cuts, hauling wood turnpike lots; land kiln construction in 1840. At the end are eight pages recording cash, checks and bank dividends received, including $203.00 from Wm. B. Tyler "for negro girl."

BOOK #10. McCLEERY, Andrew, master builder. Manuscript ledger for the year 1836. Tall folio, original drab flexible boards, pp. 160. Frederick, Maryland, 1836. Lists of complex carpentry jobs, prices, etc., about 40pp. counted loose at rear. Condition: Binding rough, contents foxed and stained, but legible; some leaves excised.

BOOK #11. McCLEERY, Andrew, master builder. Manuscript of building plans. Tall folio, 9 pp. laid into original drab flexible boards (worn). With 7 full-page drawings, and full page of figures for stone work, brick work, second floor, roof, girders, window and door frames. Frederick, Maryland, undated; early 19th century.

BOOK #12. McCLEERY, Benjamin Beall (1822-1887). Signed Education Manuscript by Henry McCleery's 18-year-old grandson, signed on front cover: "Ledger Dec. 10th 1840. Perry B[eall] McCleery," and again on verso: "Perry Beall McCleery/Frederick City, Dec. 10th/1840." Tall folio, original pictorial illustrated green printed flexible boards, stereotyped by L. Johnson, Philadelphia, approx. 100 pp. Frederick, Maryland, 1840.

Perry Beall McCleery (1822-1887), cashier of the Frederick County National Bank, built a fashionable house in Frederick between 1876 and 1878 which is listed on the National Register. Here are McCleery's youthful educational exercises, covering mathematics, penmanship, accounting; rules for keeping ledgers and journals, examples of poetry, recipes, home preserving, farm planting instructions, etc, using examples from 1805-1820s.

BOOK #13. McCLEERY FAMILY. Circa 1830s ledger completely repurposed as a mid to late 19th century scrapbook filled with newspaper cuttings, and a few pieces of insignificant ephemera. Bound in leather-backed boards (worn). 84478 ABAA-VBF

I’m still riding a high from recently checking off an item on my proverbial “bucket list.” This occurred thanks to a trip to a unique destination I’ve wanted to visit for quite some time. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a bucket list is “a list of the experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have, or accomplish, during their lifetime. A bucket list is an itemized list of goals people want to accomplish before they “kick the bucket” — or die.”

The true irony lies in the fact that the place I traveled to recently is a location seldom relished by those among the living, yet a stark reality for those who are not. I’m talking about a trip to a cemetery. However, this isn’t any ordinary cemetery, rather it’s thee cemetery—Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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My recent adventure was more than just a personal quest, it was a professional sojourn—one that will further help guide me, my co-workers and our Friends of Mount Olivet membership group in our quest to further enhance Frederick’s Mount Olivet, originally modeled after the Rural/Garden Cemetery movement of the early 19th century.

Dedicated in 1831, Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States. It is the burial site of over 93,000 individuals including many prominent New England families. Here one will discover noted politicians, inventors, social reformers, war heroes, and plenty of authors and artists of note. Mount Auburn Cemetery is also designated as a National Historic Landmark.

The grounds are set with classical monuments in a rolling landscaped terrain. This marked a distinct break with Colonial-era burying grounds with rows of upright slate tombstones, many decorated with “death heads” featuring a central winged skull, sometimes with crossed bones nearby, or an hourglass, or any other mortality symbol.

I saw several of these stones on the same trip to Massachusetts in various old graveyards located along Boston’s Independence Trail. One of the featured points of interest on the Trail is the Granary Burying Ground across from Boston Common on Tremont Street. Here, you will find immortal patriots like Paul Revere, John Hancock and Sam Adams. Ben Franklin's parents and Mother Goose are also here.

​The Granary is the most visited burying ground in the northeast with over one million visitors each year. Just up the street from here is Boston’s oldest graveyard with Kings Chapel Burying Ground.

​​The third such graveyard for the “Tombstone Tourist” on the Independence Trail is Copp’s Hill Burying Ground on the North End of the city. Established in 1659, this is the city’s largest graveyard and it is within easy view of the fabled North Church’s steeple where Paul Revere had placed lanterns on that fateful night in April, 1775 signaling “one if by land, and two if by sea.”

As said earlier, these three examples represent the accepted style for burying grounds here in North America until Mount Auburn Cemetery was planned, and dare I say executed, in the late 1820s leading to a dedication in 1831. The new burial ground project was designed largely by Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn with assistance from Jacob Bigelow and Alexander Wadsworth. Bigelow, a medical doctor, came up with the idea for Mount Auburn as early as 1825, though a site was not acquired until five years later.

​Dr. Bigelow was concerned about the unhealthiness of burials under churches as well as the possibility of running out of space in Boston. Epidemics causing widespread death gave pause to rethink burial being conducted in the rural outskirts instead of in the heart of residential centers of our early large cities.

With help from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded on 70 acres of land authorized by the Massachusetts Legislature for use as a garden, or rural, cemetery. The original land cost $6,000 and would later be extended to 170 acres. The first president of the Mount Auburn Association was a Supreme Court Justice named Joseph Story. I found his grave, and it soon made me reflect that if I were an employee of Mount Auburn (instead of Mount Olivet) and writing this particular blog series, I would certainly have a clever title for his fitting “Story in Stone.”

I also learned that Justice Story's dedication address, delivered on September 24th, 1831, established the model for many more addresses in the following three decades with particular emphasis on President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address which took place right up the road from Frederick. The national cemetery Lincoln would dedicate there in 1863 adjoins Evergreen Cemetery, a burying ground designed by the very same landscape architect who designed Mount Olivet. This was James Belden.

The appearance of rural, or garden, cemetery landscapes coincided with the rising popularity of the term "cemetery," crudely translated from Greek to mean "a sleeping place.” This language, and outlook, eclipsed the previous harsh view of death and the afterlife embodied by old burying grounds and churchyards such as those previously mentioned in Boston.

The land that became Mount Auburn Cemetery was originally named Stone's Farm, though locals referred to it as "Sweet Auburn" after the 1770 poem "The Deserted Village" by Oliver Goldsmith.  

Mount Auburn was inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and is credited as the beginning of the American public parks and gardens movement. It was an inspiration to cemetery designers across the country, setting the style for other suburban cemeteries such as Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia, 1836), Mount Hope Cemetery (Bangor, Maine, 1834), Green-Wood Cemetery (Brooklyn, 1838), Green Mount Cemetery (Baltimore, Maryland, 1839) Mount Hope Cemetery (Rochester, NY, 1838), Lowell Cemetery (Lowell, Massachusetts, 1841), Allegheny Cemetery (Pittsburgh, 1844), Albany Rural Cemetery (Menands, New York, 1844), Swan Point Cemetery (Providence, Rhode Island 1846), Spring Grove Cemetery (Cincinnati, 1844), and Forest Hills Cemetery (Jamaica Plain, 1848) as well as Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse, New York. It can be considered the link between Capability Brown's English landscape gardens and Frederick Law Olmsted's Central Park in New York (1850s).

​The 174-acre cemetery is important both for its historical aspects and for its role as an arboretum. It is Watertown's largest contiguous open space and extends into Cambridge to the east, adjacent to the Cambridge City Cemetery and Sand Banks Cemetery. It was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 2003 for its pioneering role in 19th-century cemetery development.

Upon arrival, I was immediately impressed with the main entrance off Mount Auburn Street, and was given assistance by a guide positioned just inside the gate. The Story Chapel was a great place to start exploration with cemetery map/guide in hand. In the near distance, a beautiful pond could be found at the base of a hill topped with another, yet more majestic looking chapel known as Bigelow Chapel.

​I know this may seem crass, but looking at the well-manicured grass, bountiful plantings and these two chapel features at the entrance conjured up images of the entrance to DisneyWorld. I wonder if this place was an inspiration to Disney ground designers in any way? Regardless, with this being a cemetery, visitors  can find themselves in a perpetual state of “Yesterland.”  

My exploration of Mount Auburn took place on a sunny and temperate Tuesday morning. The cemetery was not very crowded, and the vast canopy of trees provided plenty of shade. This shade also creates the magic of the landscape with light and darkness accenting the monuments and surrounding trees and vegetation.

​I had performed my advance work in reviewing notable residents of this place. There were plenty, such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Julia Ward Howe, Winslow Homer, Henry Cabot Lodge, Arthur Schlessinger, Jr., and Charles Sumner. Of particular interest to me were three "more modern" residents: Hall of Fame sportscaster Curt Gowdy, architect-engineer R. Buckminster Fuller, developer of the geodesic dome, and psychologist-behavioralist B. F. Skinner, a Harvard professor who gave test rats and pigeons fits with his operant conditioning chamber (aka “Skinner Box”).